Supernova
by CitrusVeins
Summary: A Kiribaku Space AU that no one asked for, but I started to write anyway.
1. Chapter 1

The planet was small and uninhabited, so the mission was going to be relatively easy and immensely boring. It took nearly a week to reach Alduous 579 in the tiny craft Kirishima and Kaminari barely managed to pay off with the scraps of Units left in their pockets. Nearly a _week _to literally fly there, land, grab some dirt, check some readings, and fly back off. The whole 'surveying of the planet' thing would take maybe a total of thirty minutes.

The process after that was a bit more complicated. The results would get analyzed, then the planet would be analyzed, more trips would be scheduled, and more readings would be taken, but that was out of Kirishima's hands. He was being paid to do the most mundane part of the job which is probably why the work was contracted out. He could hear his boss' voice in his head now, correcting 'mundane' to 'crucial.'

Yes, his work was important. Yes, he did a good job at it and, yes, he did take pride in it. It wasn't always filling dirt into vials. Sometimes he would be part of a larger team where they would go and meet other races, learn about other civilizations, and actually get to immerse themselves in a new culture. Those were his favourite missions. The universe was unfathomably massive and always had something unique and exciting to offer up - that's why he took his job in the first place. A few missions here and there in his shitty ship to a boring planet with the only lifeforms being its local flora and fauna was a decent trade-off.

"Are you coming down with me this time?" Kirishima asked, flopping down in front of one of the ship's panels to bring up the planet's dossier once more before they landed. He shot a knowing grin in Kaminari's direction when all he received was a snort in response. It was basically a one-man mission, but the protocol required a minimum of two employees at all times when it came to going off-planet. Whether or not they both left the ship was a different story.

"I am on an incredible streak with this game," Kaminari replied, fingers tapping across the holographic screen he had projecting up from his communicator. "If I step outside of this ship, all of my talent and honed skills will step outside with me, and, dude," he paused, looking away from the game very briefly to his partner, "I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't come back with it."

"Right, okay. I wouldn't want you to make that sacrifice," Kirishima laughed, swiping the dossier closed once he confirmed the atmosphere and went over a few other notes he had marked down before. Simple and straightforward.

As far as he was concerned, it was Kaminari's loss. Kirishima was dying to take in some fresh air and to stretch his legs _outside _instead of pacing each room of the ship. Kaminari seemed to take comfort in getting absorbed into whatever games he had on his communicator, but Kirishima found it damn near impossible to sit still. The shorter missions, like the day-trips, were better, or even the ones involving a larger crew and a larger vessel. Something like this almost made him stir crazy.

A soft beeping sounded out when the craft began to make its descent to the planet's surface, using the pre-programmed coordinates. Pretty much every aspect of these missions was idiot-proof. (Good thing for them seeing as they both nearly flunked all of their academic requirements needed to get the job.) Kaminari let out a sigh, kicking his feet off the dash of the ship and closing his game. At least when it came down to it, Kirishima's partner still did his job. Kaminari pressed a preset confirmation on the screen that popped up, sending off the relevant information needed for their report indicating that they had reached their destination safely.

Kirishima stepped away to grab the supplies used for the samples, thankful that this atmosphere didn't require some of the more bulkier suits other planets needed. It meant he could pack light, carrying only one bag, instead of being weighed down by heavy material. "I'll be back in half an hour," he called over his shoulder, heading to the main hatch and using the grab bars to steady himself as the craft officially landed. Kirishima waited for a response before he started to enter the code needed to open the exit, shoulders sagging in frustration when his partner never replied. "Kamin—"

"Yep, yep! Keep in touch, be safe, and don't talk to strangers!" The blonde cut off loudly, clearly back to playing his game. Huffing out a sigh, Kirishima now punched the code in to release the hatch.

Another less stressed sigh of relief left his mouth as the narrow stairs dropped down to the planet, fresh and cool air flooding the ship. "You're going to miss out," he taunted into the communicator fastened to his shoulder, stepping down the stairs onto the sand. Once he was a few steps away, the stairs hissed and retreated into the vessel, the hatch clanking shut behind them. Basically Kaminari's way of saying, "I heard you, but no." Kirishima grinned to himself, laughing softly. "Suit yourself, then."

The ship had been programmed to land on a vast stretch of beach lining the edge of the ocean that covered the majority of Alduous 579. The sand was completely different than Kirishima's home planet, where all the beaches were covered in gravelly, black dirt. This beach was a startling white that would have been blinding if not for the fact that a soft, dusty pink was marbled in, toning the jarring white down. The strip of shore was narrow and, a few feet away from the green water lapping at the land, purple and pink foliage were sprouting up. The shrubs and vines twisted into tall, towering trees that bloomed with broad leaves that only got larger the higher up they grew. The trees dotted the beach at first, growing denser the further inland they went which caused a twinge of excitement to grow in Kirishima's chest.

This was a planet no one he knew had seen before and _he _got to be the first one to break through that treeline to see exactly what hid in that forest.

He tried not to let the fact that he wasn't supposed to _explore _dampen his mood.

Kirishima began his walk towards the plantlife, stooping down when he had put a decent distance between himself and the ship to scoop up some of the swirled, pearlescent sand into a vial. The shrubs were next. He didn't have to grab a sample of every single one, of course, but rather a small assortment to get a rough idea of the planet's flora. Kirishima spent the next few minutes clipping leaves and stems with tiny scissors, shaking seeds free from bulbous flower pods, and carefully removing a few new shoots from the soil to ensure their roots stayed intact. Each sample was sealed into a metal canister and information was jotted down neatly across the metallic surface. Straightening himself, Kirishima turned toward the trees. He was immediately drawn to the surface of the one closest to him - it was smoother than any tree he had ever seen before, resembling a deep, purple skin more than the rough bark the majority of trees seemed to have. He reached forward hesitantly, grimacing as his fingers grazed the oddly texture-free tree. When he pushed down onto the surface, he found it squished in a bit under the pressure like he was pressing into somebody's arm. Deciding that the tree was actually quite gross (scientific term), Kirishima recoiled his hand with a sound of disgust, making a mental note to report that the trees may fall more into the fauna group than the flora. Taking a chance and praying that the tree wasn't sentient, Kirishima took out a knife from his kit and carved off a square of the flesh, sealing it away with the subsequent sap-like substance as well.

A little unnerved, Kirishima very eagerly stepped away from the skin-tree and tried to peer into the forest. It was noticeably darker, but that was to be expected given the fact that the leaves grew to such impressive sizes that they effectively blocked out any light. It wasn't eerie like one would expect given how dark it was, however. It instead looked kind of peaceful, if Kirishima were to be honest. It reminded him of a canopied sanctuary - untouched and unfazed by the rest of the universe. Curious eyes scanned into the darkness, desperate to locate anything that required proper investigation. It looked to be the same plants and trees that he could sample along the edge of the beach and they _were _instructed to refrain from going any further than necessary until the first round of samples were analyzed. Still…

In the dark, Kirishima could see some luminescent plants glowing a soft blue. They could very easily be the same plants he had already taken samples of, just reacting differently when the light source was taken away, but it wasn't like he could truly _know _that without going just a little bit further in.

As if on cue, right when he found his excuse to enter and right as he took a step, the comm on his shoulder crackled to life. "Stay out of the forest," Kaminari's voice chided, sounding amused regardless.

"It's like two steps, dude," Kirishima laughed, continuing his stride despite Kaminari's half-hearted chastising.

"If you get mauled by something with eighty eyes, thirty legs, and a million teeth, that's on you. I'll fly right on out of here and you will be missed."

"It will be an honourable death and one I will gladly take," Kirishima responded, pushing some leaves out of his way and stepping over dead vegetation. "I'm just going to grab some of whatever these are and then I'll head back. I just need to run a few scans on the beach and we're done. Go back to playing your game."

"It's cute that you want to pick flowers in the name of science." Kirishima didn't dignify that comment with a response, opting to silently roll his eyes instead.

It was only a little annoying that Kaminari was right. The glowing blue plants did turn out to be very small and very delicate looking flowers. They were dotting a clearing, swaying in the wind amongst the grass like little, blue orbs. It gave the whole scene a very ethereal appearance and it felt as though he had stumbled into a sacred area hidden just behind the treeline. Unable to help himself, Kirishima reached forward and lightly touched one of the petals, face breaking out into a grin when the glow turned from that soft, powder blue into a rich violet which seemed to spread from one flower to the next.

Another mental note: Shared root system?

When another brush of his hand didn't seem to have the same effect, Kirishima plucked off a petal to provide another form of stimulus. The subtle lighting immediately went to a bright white that managed to decently light up the ground and the surrounding area. The sudden change in the environment startled a laugh out of Kirishima and, just as he was about to _really _rub it in his partner's face that he was missing out, something caught his eye once his vision adjusted to the light.

It made the smile immediately drop.

Now lit up, Kirishima could see his surroundings better, but what he saw was a body lying face down in the flowers. And another one a few feet away. And then another. And then three more clustered by a tree.

He swallowed.

"Isn't this planet uninhabited?" Kirishima asked over the comm, trying to keep his voice steady as he fumbled with his bag for the small gun they were given to use _only _in defense and _only _when needed. The bodies weren't moving.

They weren't moving…

"Uh… Yeah? Should be?" Kaminari's voice replied immediately, laced with static. There was a pause, Kirishima narrowing his eyes at the bodies around him. "_Why? _" The voice was irritated now when Kirishima didn't respond instantly. Irritated and perhaps a little concerned. Kirishima opened and closed his mouth a few times, unable to provide Kaminari with an accurate answer because he couldn't really _tell _what species the figures were.

"There… are bodies?" The statement came out as more of a question for lack of anything better to say. He had read the dossier. He had read the dossier a few times, actually. The only lifeforms on Alduous 579 were its plant life and a few non-threatening creatures. There was nothing on the planet that could be classified as intelligent life. That being said, Kirishima knew that encountering another species that maybe took interest in the same planet wasn't unheard of. It was just that Kirishima had never experienced that situation personally. He knew the protocol, sure, but he never had to use it. "I'm going to check it out." Screeching feedback shot out from the comm on his shoulder, forcing him to freeze and cringe, yanking the comm away as best he could to prevent it from assaulting his ears further.

"You are _not_! We're supposed to collect the samples and leave," Kaminari's squawking sounded out. "Don't. Get. Involved." _That _was the protocol. Do not engage, do not intervene - continue with the mission, but leave if it became compromised. A failed mission was better than a war caused by interacting with a hostile species. "Come back."

"They're not moving. They're lying face down in the dirt, dude!" Kirishima protested, still waiting where he stood, the fingers not holding the weapon nervously fidgeting at his side. He was torn. He _knew _the _protocol_...

"Come _back _," the words were enunciated a little louder and a lot slower, almost as if Kaminari was convinced Kirishima couldn't understand him. He wasn't exactly wrong in doing so. Kirishima could understand him, he knew what Kaminari was saying and he knew why he was saying it, but something was pulling at his gut - an instinct.

"They could be hurt…" Who knows how long they had been there? Maybe he was too late, but he had to try.

"Not our problem. You're veering off course," Kaminari snapped in a panic when Kirishima began to walk forward to the three figures piled by the tree, "You're veering off course _specifically _to the things you're not supposed to veer _to_." Kirishima shook his head, holding his gun out in front of him as he drew closer to the bodies. He only crouched down for a closer look when not one of the bodies responded to the light kicking of his boot against theirs. Their chests weren't rising and falling with breaths and Kirishima couldn't feel a pulse point when he pressed his now ungloved fingers to their wrists and necks, but that really didn't mean anything when it came down to it. Many creatures _looked _similar in the universe, but it didn't always mean their internal makeup was similar. The circulatory and respiratory systems could very well act completely different than his own. Still, no breathing, no pulse, _and _not moving? He deemed it safe enough to try and remove one of the helmets. He clumsily felt around the unfamiliar equipment not wanting to just yank it off of a corpse's head and finally located a small button on the side just below the jaw of the helmet. The hardened material whirred quietly before retracting into itself and collapsing into an earpiece the body was wearing. Kirishima could feel his chest constrict with a shallow inhale as the face was revealed.

"It's a human…" he breathed out, speaking just loud enough for Kaminari to pick it up over the comm. It took nearly a full minute for his brain to process what he was seeing. Moving with renewed curiosity, Kirishima fumbled with the buttons on the helmets of the other two figures. "Holy shit. They're all human."

"What are they doing all the way out here?" Kaminari asked after a few moments of silence, voice undeniably piqued in interest, but remaining hesitant and cautious. "Wait, no, I don't care. Kirishima, we should leave. Earth hasn't exactly been open to the whole rest of the universe thing and now they're all bent out of shape over that missing weapon or some shit!" Kirishima ignored the surprisingly logical information, approaching one of the other bodies. Dead, too. "Who knows why they were here or what they can even do!"

"They're all dead," Kirishima continued without responding to his partner's words of caution. He checked the fifth body. Dead as well. They all looked relatively… fresh. They at least hadn't started any noticeable decomposition. They weren't warm, but they also weren't that cold yet either, and rigor mortis hadn't seemed to have set in completely. If Kirishima had to guess, using his very limited knowledge of humans and supplementing the gaps with his rough knowledge of other species, he would say that the had been dead for maybe a couple of hours.

He was expecting to see some kind of sign hinting at the humans' deaths, but he couldn't find anything noteworthy. They were bruised and scratched like there was a bit of a scuffle, and some of their uniforms looked as though something had burned the fabric. Other than a bit of blood from superficial wounds, nothing _looked _traumatic enough to kill them off. Internal then? A reaction to the atmosphere? "Do you think they crashed?" The question was asked aloud, but he really wasn't expecting an answer from the now thoroughly panicked and increasingly pissed off Kaminari.

"There's no wreckage. Let's go. Get back to the ship. I will leave your ass behind!"

Kirishima scoffed at that, approaching the last figure, the one that was in the middle of the luminescent flowers and the first one he had seen. This one was different. He appeared to be younger than the other bodies and lacked a uniform and helmet. He was still in all black like the others, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and basic pants, but his clothes looked to be more that of a civilian than something militant. Kirishima felt drawn to this body more, he morbidly realized, but it didn't stop him from dropping to his knees to get a closer look. Kirishima had never seen a human before this. He had heard about them. He roughly knew what they looked like from stories, but hearing about something and actually seeing something were two entirely different things. He felt a little disrespectful using the corpse as a means to fulfill his curiosity, but when would he get another chance to see one so up close?

"If you are fucking poking those things with a stick, Kirishima…" Kaminari muttered, decidedly done with the long stretch of silence.

"I'm _not_," Kirishima hissed back, neglecting to mention the fact that, while no, he wasn't poking the human with a stick, he was actively rolling him over to quite literally inspect him more. While the human looked significantly younger than the other five, he still seemed matured past adolescence. Kirishima imagined that the human looked even younger than he was due to the relaxed expression that came with, well, being dead; the dark circles under his eyes and blood caking the left side of his face being the only indicators that he wasn't peacefully resting. His hair stuck out wildly in all directions and was ash-blonde in colour - nothing like Kaminari's bright yellow. The blood had stained its way into the hair, plastering it to the side of the human's face where it dried.

Kirishima was still surprised to discover that they weren't so different in appearance, even though he had a slight idea of what humans looked like. The human's ears were rounded, whereas his were pointed. The human's face was smooth, whereas he had hard, plate-like structures resting high on his cheekbones and under his jawline. The extremely faint freckles spread across the other's nose caused Kirishima's lips to quirk upwards in a fond smile. He _really _wanted to see if humans had sharp, pointed teeth as well, but was positive that that would be pushing it a little too far on the morbid curiosity scale.

Kirishima almost felt guilty that he hadn't been there to help with whatever had happened. It was like rubbing salt in the wounds knowing that he had only been a few hours away, too. His heart felt heavy and it left a sick feeling in his stomach. Logically, even if he had been there, there may have been nothing he could've done anyway. He didn't even know what caused this mess! Sighing to himself, trying to push down the needless guilt, Kirishima reached forward to move some of the bloody hair away from the human's forehead.

He froze when the human's eyebrows twitched just barely in response.

Kirishima's hands hovered awkwardly over the blonde's face, unsure how to proceed. The movement had been so subtle and so fleeting that he wasn't even sure if he saw correctly. He touched the human's cheek that wasn't covered in blood, and his heavy heart was now leaving his chest and slamming violently into his throat. The eyebrows furrowed now, the human's mouth twisting into a deep frown. "He's alive," Kirishima said in a rushed voice, only now realizing that he had been holding his breath. He cleared his throat, tilting his face towards his comm a bit more, "Kaminari, he's _alive_."

"Fucking _neat_, dude. All the more reason to leave."

Emboldened by the fact (and a bit relieved) that he wasn't man-handling a corpse anymore, Kirishima's fretting hands surged forward again. He wasn't a medic by any means, but basic first-aid was a requirement and he needed to see where that blood was coming from. He parted the hair as gently as he could, wincing with the human as he revealed a particularly nasty gash running from his temple to about three inches onto his scalp. "He's hurt," Kirishima informed Kaminari, leaning away from the human as he waited for his friend's response.

"I'm sure there's help on the way…" Kaminari trailed off, his voice sounding more sympathetic than it was before. Kirishima knew that sympathy was more directed at him than the human, but he'd take what he could get. "We don't know where humans stand on these things. We _have _to leave him here. It sucks, I know, bu—"

"There are cuffs on his wrists," Kirishima interrupted, having gone back to inspecting the human again - trying to find anything to tug on Kaminari's heartstrings. "Or some kind of bind? They're broken though." An incredulous laugh blasted out of the comm now.

"So he's a slave or a prisoner! Now we _really _shouldn't be fucking around with this!"

"_If _he's a slave, he needs our help," Kirishima said quietly, fumbling with the metal around the human's wrists. The blood was obvious, but what he thought had been dirt turned out to be black soot trailing from the human's hands up to his elbows. He was able to loosen the cuffs a bit, to prevent them from further biting into the already raw and filthy skin, but they were going to need to be cut off to remove them completely.

"And if he's a prisoner?" came Kaminari's dark reply, forcing Kirishima to pause and glare ahead at the trees in frustration. He knew Kaminari thought he was too trusting. He arguably _was _too trusting, but he also wasn't the type to leave an unconscious being injured and bleeding on an uninhabited planet.

"So we secure him until we know. He _needs _treatment," his voice was firm, leaving no room for argument. Kaminari didn't respond, undoubtedly sulking but ultimately deciding that he wouldn't persuade Kirishima to change his mind.

"We don't have a brig." The words were ground out bitterly, bringing a smile to Kirishima's face regardless.

He had won.

He positioned himself into a crouch, tucking his arms under the human's back and knees to lift him. "I can override the door on my quarters. He can stay in there and we can hook up a feed to keep an eye on him." Kaminari made an indignant sound mixed with a laugh.

"Cool. You're not sharing my bed." It was Kirishima's turn to sputter in response, glaring at the ship where he figured Kaminari was watching from once he stepped back onto the beach, emerging from the trees. "You're the one making me harbour a _fugitive_. Do you seriously think I want to have a slumber party with your dumb ass?"

"I _think _you're being a bit of a child about the whole situation," Kirishima hissed back, "but _fine_. I'll sleep on the bridge. Not a big deal." He stopped by the indents under the ship that the stairs had left behind previously and waited, knowing full well that Kaminari had been watching his approach. Kirishima's shoulders sagged in frustration when the steps hadn't been released by his partner, shifting the human in his arms as gently as he could. "Can you _please _lower the stairs, dude?" There was more silence and Kirishima knew - he _knew _\- Kaminari was sitting in front of the panel, arms crossed over his chest, and pouting. He also knew that in approximately five seconds, Kaminari would cave in again and let him in.

_5… _

_4… _

_3… _

_2… _

"You're going to get us in so much trouble," Kaminari's voice finally blurted from the speaker.

_1\. _

The stairs unfolded from the ship with a creak and a hiss, and Kirishima began the climb - excitement, uncertainty, and determination brewing just under his skin.

* * *

**A/N: Still getting the hang of this site, but here's the first chapter of the Space AU I'm slowly working on.**


	2. Chapter 2

"He's ugly."

Kirishima immediately frowned at Kaminari's comment and tilted his head to the side as he regarded the human lying on the table. "I think he's kinda pretty," he freely admitted, shrugging his shoulders. Flicking his eyes back up to his friend's face, Kirishima watched and let out a laugh when Kaminari's passive expression shifted into one of disgust.

"Do _not _start crushing on this thing."

Kirishima gasped; smile gone. "He's not a _thing_," he scolded without missing a beat, suddenly defensive even though the human very likely couldn't hear them. The red eyes widened when Kaminari's eyebrows rose inquisitively at the lack of denial towards the statement. Kirishima could feel his face heat up uncomfortably, quickly adding, "And I'm not! I just don't think he's ugly. Besides, he basically looks like us." Kaminari laughed mockingly and stepped away from the table to gesture at himself.

"I don't think _he _can compare to _this._" Turning away from his friend, Kirishima nodded thoughtfully and grabbed some gloves from the counter of their makeshift medical bay. He threw a pair at his partner, who fumbled but managed to catch the items, and began pulling a pair on himself.

"You're right. Nothing can compare to you," Kirishima teased as he turned back, grin widening at Kaminari's weak glare when he finally captured the redhead's attention. Eventually, Kaminari's resolve broke and grinned back just as fiercely, yanking on his own pair of gloves. Having weathered a friendship for nearly ten years it was hard for either of them to stay seriously mad at each other.

"Damn straight. Okay!" He clapped his hands together loudly, rubbing them together as best he could despite the gloves, "Where do we start?" The two locked eyes unsurely, both of them watching each other's gears turn as they tried to remember the first-aid courses they had barely passed.

"Clean the blood?" Kirishima began slowly, hesitantly, clearing his throat when Kaminari just raised an eyebrow; the tone wasn't very convincing. Good start. "Clean the blood," Kirishima repeated with more conviction, nodding his head in an attempt to convince even himself of the course of action as well. He straightened up into a posture of more authority and waved his hand towards the sink. "Nurse Kaminari, would you kindly get some warm water?"

"Do not," Kaminari warned, grabbing one of the metal bowls from the shelf to fill it regardless. He stopped when he turned the faucet on and turned back to face Kirishima who was gathering up as many clean cloths as he could. "Should we like boil this?" The face Kirishima made indicated that neither of them knew the answer. Trying another route, Kaminari spoke again, "Do you think we have to? How strong are humans?"

Kirishima's jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth in thought. "I think it's fine? It's just water, right? Humans use water all the time!" Kaminari stared at him, expression becoming increasingly exasperated and definitely conveying a very 'I fucking told you this was a bad idea' look. Noticing this, the once authoritative posture Kirishima tried to convey withered as he shrunk back sheepishly. "Don't they?" Kaminari's arms shot up, still holding onto the bowl with one hand and splashing water all over the room behind him.

"I don't know, dude! The only thing I know about humans is that they hate the rest of us!" He dropped the bowl back into the sink with a loud clatter, all while shaking his head, and turned the tap back on. "Whatever. It's fine. If he dies of a brain infection because of the water, we can just dump him out of the airlock and problem solved!" Kirishima wanted to snap right back and return the attitude but held his tongue. At the very least, he couldn't fault his friend for having this reaction. Kaminari was just speaking out of frustration simply because of what he had always been taught. Kirishima had been fed the same information about Earth and humans his whole life, after all, so he could relate on some level.

The planet had really only confirmed that the universe was teeming with life fifty years prior and, after the initial panic, was stuck in what many described as a 'rebellious adolescent' stage. For this reason, the rest of the universe just kept their distance. There had been some contact, of course, between ambassadors, but nothing substantial. It was ultimately decided that the little blue marble of a planet would eventually come around and, until then, they could just float around in peace. After all, the humans were so used to being at the top of everything - of their planet, their solar system, and, although foolish, of the whole universe. It became apparent that not only were they not the only intelligent lifeform around, they were also quite low on the technological advancement scale in the grand scheme of things. Sure, they had invented some pretty impressive creations, but they were nowhere near as advanced as the majority of species out there. This was nothing to be ashamed of and new planets became aware of the rest of the universe all the time. Once those planets reached that specific level of discovery, their intelligence and abilities grew by leaps and bounds with the aid of the rest of the universe. What would normally take decades, now only took years.

Earth, ever stubborn, instead put its walls up; sealing itself away and protecting itself from the rest of, well, everything.

"Look," Kirishima started after a tense and lengthy pause, "I know you don't like this. I know humans aren't cooperative and I _know _we're supposed to stay away from them." Kaminari put the bowl of water down onto the counter with more force than necessary, ignoring the water that sloshed out. Yellow eyes flicked up to meet Kirishima's, defiant but prompting him to continue. "He was going to _die _if we left him there, and maybe if we return him - slave _or _prisoner - humans will actually start to trust us." He was met with the most dramatic eye-roll he had ever seen his friend make.

"I know you have this, like, incredible hard-on for adventure and meeting fun, new species, but I really, _really _, just want to get paid and not die," Kaminari elaborated, his voice annoyed, and pulled off a glove to run his fingers through his hair stressfully. "I just want the _money _and to go back home without starting an all-out war between planets. Now, I don't want him dead - of course, I don't - but if we come waltzing back with this guy in tow, we aren't going to get paid. If we rescued a Caevem or something _maybe _it'd be okay, but this will definitely get us off contracts for good! Kiri, we could even get fined or thrown in jail!"

Kaminari didn't pause his rant, eyes widening more and more with each sentence. "Even if we did sneak him past, what would the other humans _think _when we go to return him!? The Federation can't even get near their solar system without eliciting a hostile reaction! You think two morons can just fly this piece of shit up to them, 'Oh, hey, we found your dude KO'd on some planet. Want him back?' What if they think we made him a slave? What if they think we killed the others!?"

Kirishima let the other ramble frantically, slowly raising his hands in a weak effort to placate his friend. Kaminari finally stopped, shoulders rising and falling with heavy breaths, still staring in disbelief at his friend from across the table. "Are…" Kirishima chose his words cautiously, letting out a soft laugh, "Are you done?"

Kaminari blinked a few times, clearly trying to process the words to decide if he was truly done with the ranting. "I think so," Kaminari breathed out finally, dragging a chair over and flopping down into it roughly, ripping off the other glove. Kirishima pulled his lips into a tight line, trying in vain to swallow back another laugh. His friend was honestly an easy-going guy; things rarely got under his skin as he seemed to brush off most inconveniences. He liked to have fun and didn't mind a bit of trouble, but evidently, this is where he drew the line.

"You thought about this a _lot _in what? An hour?" Kaminari just nodded tiredly, dropping his head back against the chair to stare miserably up at the ceiling. "How about we look at it this way… We return him to Earth and literally none of what you said happens. Instead, we're _heroes _!" Kirishima grinned triumphantly with his arms outstretched. When Kaminari lifted his head to look at him with a bored expression, his arms dropped uselessly to his sides and his grin sunk into a frown. "Just— _Dude_. Heroes. Heroes get girls and money, yeah?" His friend's eyebrows rose just a fraction, but Kirishima could see that he definitely sat up straighter. "Lots of girls and money." The silence returned, but, just like when Kirishima wanted to bring the human with him, he knew that he had won again against Kaminari's better judgement.

"_Fine_." The blonde peeled himself from the chair to slowly stand up, gesturing for a new pair of gloves. A smile threatened to split Kirishima's face as he tossed him a fresh pair and Kaminari reluctantly pulled them on, all while softly cursing to himself. Before he continued with their very half-assed attempt at first-aid, Kaminari regarded his friend with squinted eyes. He seemed to be happily pulling out all sorts of medical supplies, not a worry to be found on his face. "You're seriously not stressing about this?"

Kirishima's fingers hesitated on a roll of gauze for about half a second but continued to pull it out of the kit. He rose a shoulder in a half-shrug, tilting his head to look back at his friend. He knew Kaminari wasn't being childish and cold-hearted in regards to leaving the human behind. He knew the severity of the situation and he knew the possible repercussions - if this did go badly, it really could end in an actual war; Kaminari wasn't exaggerating during his panicked rambling. But Kirishima also believed that most beings in the universe were driven by the sense of good intentions. He'd have to be careful, sure, and he couldn't just boldly fly on into Earth's solar system, but he wasn't worried about how they would react.

Even if humans weren't driven by good intentions, Kirishima was. The fact of the matter was that there was a human dying on some remote planet and that human needed his help. Kaminari would argue that it wasn't that black and white, most would argue that in fact, but to Kirishima it was. There was no grey area in the matter. If someone needs help, you help them. Simple.

"I won't ask you to do anything more than necessary," Kirishima promised instead, and he meant it. He knew that this was his choice and he'd only pull Kaminari in as much as he needed. "He needs help and I want to help him, but I don't want you to get all tied up in this. I just need your help right now and I really, _really _appreciate it." Kaminari audibly groaned when Kirishima stopped talking, expression shifting into something unreadable that made the redhead's heart clench with nerves. The nerves fizzled out quickly when Kaminari reached across the table, extending his fist.

"Don't get sappy, dude." Kirishima beamed vibrantly despite the fake-scowl Kaminari put on his face, bumping their fists together. "Mission: Save Kirishima's Human is a go, I guess."

Kirishima gestured for the bowl of water to be placed between them on the counter, dropping two cloths into it. "Get the plasma cutter to remove those cuffs from his wrists. I'll start cleaning the blood."

They got to work.

It took a while to remove most of the blood from the human's face. Although parts were now flaking off, Kirishima was hesitant to apply much pressure when he couldn't exactly see the damage underneath. The last thing he wanted was to forcefully rip away a scab sealing up a wound. Instead, he found a slow, but a gentler method of wetting the cloth, holding it in place, dabbing lightly, and then rinsing. Wet, hold, dab, rinse, repeat. Kaminari's job was going exceptionally faster; one of the metal cuffs had already clattered to the floor and he was busy cutting through the other one.

Relatively satisfied with his blood-cleaning abilities, and relieved that he only discovered a few cuts and bruises, Kirishima turned his attention to the wound that had him most concerned. The large cut going from the human's temple and back into his hairline was much deeper and much wider than Kirishima had first thought. Now cleaned, though sluggishly bleeding, Kirishima knew that the wound was going to require more work than just some closure bandages.

He gently parted the irritated flesh just a fraction to assess the damage, desperately trying to plan his next step. Did it need to be irrigated? Would stitches be enough? Did they even have a suture kit on their ship? Hopefully Kaminari would know. "Do we have stuff for stit—" Kirishima's sentence stopped when something caught his eye in the gash, and he dabbed at the wound lightly to staunch the fresh flow of blood. His eyes widened when he confirmed that he saw correctly.

Tucked neatly into the wound were three small bundles of twisted wires, emerging from the start of the wound near the human's eye and disappearing back under the skin where the injury ended on his scalp. One of the wires seemed to sag compared to the other two which were pulled taut, but he didn't dare touch it to inspect further. "Holy shit." Kaminari looked up from the cutter with a frown, flicking off the device to move back to the head of the table to see what his friend was suddenly fussing about.

Standing beside Kirishima now, Kaminari could see what his friend was looking at. "Well, shit," he whispered, signalling Kirishima to tilt the human's head more to the side. Kirishima obeyed, knowing his friend was significantly better versed in the world of electronics than he was. The last thing he wanted to do was go poking around and cause something to short-circuit - he was about 85% sure that Kaminari wouldn't let that happen if he investigated. He rested his hand on the human's opposite cheek and placed his other hand against the back of the head, slowly rotating to turn the human to the side as gently as possible. Kaminari reached forward and very lightly parted the wound like Kirishima had done to see the wires better; the thin blue and white cords getting flooded with crimson at the disturbance. He bumped Kirishima out of the way with his shoulder and leaned in for a closer inspection, his fingers pulling away from the wound and lightly pressing into the skin on either side of it. "Dude…"

"What?" Kirishima's voice was more pinched than he would've liked, not at all masking his nerves. Kaminari didn't reply and continued to trace his fingers along the scalp, his expression turning more and more confused. He let go of the human only briefly to remove his gloves, fingers diving right back to feel the skin now unobstructed. "Dude, _what_?" Kirishima tried again.

"Can you tilt him up?" Kaminari asked instead. Despite the lack of answers, Kirishima did as he was instructed all while trying to be as careful as possible. The movement wasn't much, but it was enough for Kaminari to duck down even farther to look at the back of the human's head, right near the hairline. "He's got some cybernetics? Or something?" The blonde finally explained as he straightened up and he began running his fingers against the skin again in the same way he was before.

Kirishima could've guessed that. He had seen the wires first, after all. When he pointed that out, Kaminari just shook his head. "No, not just the wires. They attach to something near his eye under his skin. Maybe some kind of circuit board? Something flat." The fingers tucked back into the ash-blonde hair still matted with blood, fumbling around. "And then they go all the way back to a port of some kind, at the back of his head. I've never seen anything like this." Kaminari looked up to his friend's puzzled expression, shoving Kirishima out of the way again, but this time it was so he could be the one supporting the human's head. "Look."

Kirishima didn't know why he was nervous, but he was. Kaminari literally had just told him what to expect and yet he could still feel his heart thrumming rapidly. Humans, as far as he knew, as far as anyone knew, weren't electronic. So, what did he _really _get them into? Despite the nerves, he shuffled over and leaned down to assume Kaminari's previous position, squinting at the back of the human's head. Sure enough, nestled at the base of the skull was a circular port about an inch in diameter. It was empty; the inside lined with silver metal with a small brass notch at the bottom.

"What does it do?" Kirishima asked, immediately wanting to kick his own teeth in at the stupidity of the question. Kaminari thankfully didn't call him out on it, but his expression conveyed that he was having the same thought.

"Maybe he's some kind of escaped experiment…" Kaminari trailed off, yellow eyes growing larger as a thought made itself known in his head. "Hold his head, I wanna try something!" The voice was too excitable for Kirishima to be comfortable, but, seeing as he wasn't the one with the affinity for electronic devices, he did as he was told. Curious eyes watched his friend as the human's hair was parted to reveal the port better. Kaminari pulled his one of his hands back, fingers twitching just barely, and it took a grand total of two seconds for Kirishima to realize that he was charging himself up.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" Kirishima squawked, slapping his friend's hand away with probably more force than necessary. A small shock shot between the two when their skin met, resembling that of a very weak zap of static. Kaminari immediately looked offended, cradling his uninjured hand dramatically to his chest. "You could've fried his brain!"

"I was just going to see if I could activate whatever he's got going on! I wasn't going to kill him!"

"You don't know that!" Kirishima subconsciously increased his grip on the human protectively; his one hand was still supporting the head, but his other one had now wound its way around the human's shoulders. "We don't know what those wires do and we don't even know how weak these guys even are," Kirishima tried to explain after calming down from his initial outburst. "Those other humans were all dead without any severe injuries… What if all it takes is just a tiny jolt of _something _and their bodies completely shut down?" Kaminari clicked his tongue against his teeth while he inspected his _most definitely uninjured _hand, and finally met Kirishima's gaze.

"Then they shouldn't be out in, I don't know, _space _," Kaminari retorted bitterly, folding his arms against his chest. Kirishima opened his mouth to reply - he wanted to say no shit, that's why they were trying to bring the human back - but before he could even utter a word, he felt the human tense.

And then he shifted.

Kirishima's hands reflexively tightened their hold, but his brain instantly panicked. He had to make a conscious effort to slowly pull back from the human when he started to sit himself up opposed to forcefully dropping him like a pan fresh from the oven. He was vaguely aware of Kaminari saying things, but all Kirishima could do was stare in a mixture of shock and amazement as the figure pushed himself fully into a sitting position; his arms shaking with exhaustion or pain or fear - maybe all three. He reluctantly pulled his hands away from where he was holding the human's arms but kept them outstretched just in case he needed some more support. Kirishima held his breath.

The human's eyes remained closed as he raised trembling fingers to the wound on the side of his head. He flinched with a hiss and cursed something in an unfamiliar language, his hand jerking away so suddenly that Kirishima was worried he'd lose his balance. "Hey," he said softly, fighting desperately to keep his voice calm and steady despite feeling the exact opposite, "let's not touch that, okay?" Closed eyes scrunched tighter in pain, but they finally cracked open.

Yeah, Kirishima's heart _certainly _didn't stop when he was met with startling red eyes. Sure, he had red eyes, too. He'd seen red eyes every day of his life! But these eyes were burning bright despite the discomfort the human was in; a rich and deep crimson that rivaled the heat of a fire and made Kirishima falter when they locked with his. He felt his heart stutter in his chest when his brain finally kicked back in and willed the feeling away, trying to put on his most reassuring smile. "You're safe. How do you feel?" The fiery eyes stared at him in a daze, the human's face not changing in expression. Kirishima waited nervously, smile falling just a little.

"He probably doesn't speak Universal," Kaminari suggested. Having nearly forgotten that Kaminari was in the room, the words jolted Kirishima. His friend was most likely correct. If Earth sealed themselves away, the chances of _anyone _knowing Universal was slim.

"Can you understand me?" Again, nothing.

Kirishima shifted his gaze to Kaminari when he didn't get a response. He was about to ask for some more guidance when the human surged towards him, teeth bared. A fist connected with the side of his face and, while he did feel it, it was the human who recoiled with a yelp of pain. He flexed his now reddened hand, a string of violent words neither Kirishima nor Kaminari could understand spilling forth from his mouth. Kirishima wanted to fret over him, to make sure the hand was okay, but before he could do anything the human was lunging at him again.

Only this time he fell short, body dropping to the ground and off of the table with a loud smack. Kirishima stumbled back in confusion, noting the twitching muscles of the human and seeing Kaminari standing significantly closer with a hand outstretched.

"Holy shit! Did you tase him!?"

"He broke his hand on your dumb rock face!" Kaminari snapped back defensively, his voice and demeanor expressing one of fear rather than anger. "We should've used restraints! I told you we should've used restraints!"

Kirishima shook his head and knelt beside the body on the ground. He placed his hands tentatively on the now still back, fingers scrabbling for a pulse on the human's neck. Relieved at the fluttering against his fingertips, Kirishima shot an exasperated glare at Kaminari. "He was probably just scared, dude! It's not like he hurt me." Kaminari sputtered when Kirishima picked up the human, stepping backward to put more space between himself and the being that just attacked his friend - _twice_.

"_He _was scared?"

Kirishima placed the human back onto the tabletop, eyeing his friend stubbornly. "_Yes_. The last thing he probably remembers is almost dying. So now he wakes up in a strange place, with strangers hovering around him, probably in a _lot _of pain - I'd freak out too!"

Kaminari scrubbed his face in frustration and groaned loudly into his palms. Kirishima looked in his friend's direction and was instantly slammed with guilt. While he truly believed the human simply acted on impulse, in the end it was Kaminari who was doing them a favour - not the other way around. The last thing he wanted to do was make Kaminari more uncomfortable than he already was and seeing the thing you were told to stay away from for your life attempt to attack your best friend was probably the farthest thing from comforting. Letting out a long sigh, Kirishima willed himself to calm down and nodded. "Actually, you're right. I'm sorry." Kaminari pulled his hands away from his face, eyeing Kirishima suspiciously as he waited for him to continue the apology. "We don't know the guy and it's probably best if we… If _I _don't take any more chances."

"I _want _to help you," Kaminari stressed to his friend, his shoulders sagging in relief at Kirishima's words, "You know I love you, dude, and you know I love doing stupid shit with you, but this guy isn't safe. I will help _you _help _him _, but if we're going to do that we can't have him roaming around like a feral beast. We _can't _treat him like us. Not right now, not with everything you're putting on the line by even attempting this."

Kirishima turned his attention to the human on the table as Kaminari spoke. Passed out the human looked harmless and it tugged at Kirishima's heart to even consider treating him like a wild animal. He wanted to convince Kaminari to give the human one more chance - to let him wake up in an area of the ship that wasn't so uncomfortable and crowded with medical supplies - but the serious look his normally carefree friend had on his face immediately ended that thought. Reluctantly, Kirishima nodded his head and faced Kaminari properly. "I'll use the restraints, see what I can do about his wound, and clean him up a bit more. Then I'll move him to my room for the time being. You can get our ship set back on course."

This was important to him. He wanted to believe that no matter how small the action was in the end, it'd be at least an attempt to bridge the gap between humans and everyone else. But if that action, let alone the human, happened to hurt Kaminari or anyone else he loved in the process, would it even be worth it?


	3. Chapter 3

"Your human's awake…" Kirishima stirred at the voice and grunted in acknowledgement, and yet made no effort to move.

The human had remained out cold for two hours after Kaminari's tasing and, with his vitals all seeming fine, Kirishima and Kaminari figured that they should try to sleep while they could. It took some convincing, but after an impressive display of whining, apologizing, and_ begging_, Kaminari allowed Kirishima to crash in his bed instead of on the bridge of their ship like they bickered about earlier on Alduous 579.

A few hours prior, and with the never-failing assistance of Kaminari, the human was moved to Kirishima's room which would serve as a surprisingly comfortable holding cell. An override code was entered for the lock, a feed had been set up that could be accessed via their communicators, and as an extra precaution, the human's hands were bound together again. There was a small argument about whether or not having the human's hands cuffed in front of him was more or less dangerous, but Kirishima ultimately won by insisting that this way gave the human some range of movement. Maybe he wouldn't feel as restrained and thus less hostile, was his logic. Kaminari laughed directly into his friend's face, but conceded; he wasn't the one dealing with the human, after all.

Except it felt like he was because Kirishima wasn't _waking up_.

Kaminari had heard it first; a few thumps and then a loud crash. Then more crashes. He didn't need to look at his comm to know that the human was trashing Kirishima's room. Exhaustion and bitterness lingering, Kaminari couldn't exactly bring himself to care all too much that his friend's room was likely meeting the equivalent of a storm packed into a human's body. Karma or not, it had woken _him _up.

"_Dude_," Kaminari pressed again at a particularly loud smash, booting Kirishima's leg with his foot. "He's breaking your shit." The swift kick was effective and the redhead glared over his shoulder through sleepy eyes; his brain clouded with drowsiness as he sluggishly tried to process why Kaminari was waking him. It was an impressively jarring bang against the wall that made those same sleepy eyes widen with clarity. Kirishima bolted upright, and frantic hands scrambled for his communicator on the nearby table.

"Aw, man. What the hell!" Kirishima breathed after swiping open the feed, his eyes flicking over the footage to assess the damage. Everything that wasn't bolted down had a new home across the room in a million different pieces. Kirishima had never put anything of value in his room per se - it was literally just a place to fall asleep while on the job - but it had still been _his_. And now his stuff was either smashed, torn, or completely obliterated due to some kind of temper tantrum from the human he had _saved_.

From beside him, Kaminari sat up as well, letting out a low whistle as he peered over at the screen. "You know, if his hands were behi—"

"I _know_," Kirishima seethed back without hearing the rest of the sentence and he swung his legs over the side of the bed. Eyes not leaving the comm, Kirishima stalked out of the room and towards the makeshift cell. He stopped in front of the door and eyed it warily, looking back down at the footage to gauge exactly how safe it was to approach. The human was fuming; pacing around the room like a captive animal. _Scared. He's scared_, Kirishima tried to remind himself and he closed his eyes, letting out a slow and even breath to try and relax. He wasn't mad at the human, of course, but the frustration at his broken items and the exhaustion from the emotionally taxing day were pulling on his seemingly never-ending string of patience.

Steeling himself, Kirishima raised his knuckles to the door and knocked twice. On the screen, the human halted in his tracks and his head jerked towards the door at the sound. "Hey," Kirishima called out just loud enough to be heard through the metal separating them. As expected, the human didn't respond but his head did tilt just a little which prompted Kirishima to continue. "I know you can't, like, understand me, but you can't just go around breaking someone's stuff, bro! That's just not…" he trailed off, fumbling with his words. "Look," he tried instead, "I know we probably scared you, but you can trust us. We're trying to help you so can you please just calm down?"

The human hadn't moved and continued to stare at the door, but his shoulders were no longer rising and falling as rapidly as before. Kirishima noticed that while he hadn't relaxed completely, it didn't look like the human would immediately lunge at his throat if he entered the room. Well, he hoped. It wasn't like he had become a human behavioural expert over the past few hours. "I'm going to open the door now…" From down the short hallway, Kaminari's voice pointed out that Kirishima's idea was, in fact, a very bad one. Ignoring the warning, Kirishima shifted his comm to his other hand to punch in the override code.

He still watched the screen as the door hissed and slid open, just in case the human decided to make a mad dash at him while the metal was still obscuring his vision. Even after the door sealed behind Kirishima again, the human remained rooted to his current spot, although his posture had shifted; shoulders squared, legs apart. He wasn't about to attack, but the possibility was certainly there.

Figuring he wasn't in immediate danger and keeping his back to the door, Kirishima was able to survey his room up close. His heart sunk. His room was pretty bare compared to Kaminari's, but he did have a few mementos that were now strewn about the room. A crystal from his first mission had been obliterated against the wall and lay in shards on the ground, a small lamp from his desk was bent at an unnatural angle near the door, and even the bedding (though seemingly undamaged) was torn from the bed and spread across the room. "Wow. I mean, I guess I can't blame you for freaking out, but… wow." His eyes met the human's again, not in the least bit surprised that the scowl hadn't left the other's face.

The man hissed something lowly in response, lips drawing up into a snarl and the look he gave Kirishima was like he was trying to render him dead with his glare alone. In an effort to assuage some of the human's hostility, Kirishima did the only thing he could think of that didn't involve stumbling over words which was to smile widely at the human.

It kind of worked.

Tension seemed to pour out of the human at a rapid pace, confusion replacing the anger quickly. The blonde eyebrows furrowed again just as fast and the glare returned albeit less heated. He muttered something in his language, lifting up his hands to gesture at his wrists. Although Kirishima had no idea what he was saying, he was able to piece it together enough to answer.

"I can't remove them," he said sympathetically, smile softening and tacking on, "sorry," for good measure. Just because they couldn't understand each other didn't mean he couldn't display proper manners, even though Kirishima doubted the human had the same mindset. Harshly saying something else, the human stepped closer and shook his hands more violently in Kirishima's direction. "Dude, I _really _in good conscience can't remove those. Look what you did to my room _with _them bound!" Red eyes followed Kirishima's vague gesture to the decimation around his room before they locked back onto his face. The human's jaw flexed in frustration and for a painful moment, Kirishima thought the human would be lunging at him again. Instead, an irritated sigh spilled from the other's mouth, his hands dropping uselessly in front of him.

Kirishima blew out a breath of air as well when silence fell across the room, scuffing his foot across the ground at the feeling of awkwardness that was now rolling over his body. He didn't ever like the tense silence that filled the space between two strangers. Typically he'd be talking away with icebreaker questions, genuinely interested in the other's answers, but even if the human could speak Universal, Kirishima doubted that he'd have much to say. "I know!" he exclaimed suddenly, startling the human into moving back a step. "Wait right here." Kirishima held a finger up as if to say 'one moment,' blatantly ignoring the fact that the human was pretty much locked in the room by his own doing. "I'll be right back. Don't trash anything else." Kirishima flapped his hand around aimlessly, backing up towards the door and turning just enough to punch in the code. "Just a sec."

When he returned about ten minutes later (after carefully checking the communicator, of course, he totally didn't just barrel blindly back into the room), he found the human still standing in roughly the same spot. He ignored the unusual behaviour and plastered his brightest smile back onto his face. "You must be hungry, dude!" He announced, lifting a bowl up in one hand and gesturing to the other items he had balanced in his other arm. They didn't have much in their limited pantry, but they had packed enough for the trip and then some. Certainly enough to share. "Sit!" Kirishima dropped to the ground a few feet away from the human, carefully placing the bowl down onto the floor and putting the other two food items out in front of him. "I've no idea what you eat," he rambled on, looking up at the human to wave him down to his level, "but this should be fine. This stuff is pretty standard across the whole universe. Everyone seems to eat it without dying, so that's a good start."

The human stared down at him, unamused. A frown was pulling on his lips as his eyes bounced between the food and cheery redhead who was seemingly unperturbed by his less than enthused response. "_This_," Kirishima picked up a bright, teal sphere covered in small ruffles with a purple tinge along the edges, "is uh… Well, it's a fruit, I guess. Maybe a vegetable. There are debates about it." He paused and contemplated the fruit-vegetable in his hand as though he had never considered its existence. He let out a light laugh, holding it out to the human and pulling it back in when the other made did not attempt to grab it. "Okay, that's fine. _These _are my favourite. Starfreys." Placing the produce onto the ground, Kirishima picked up the colourful bag that held clearly processed snacks. "They're usually for kids and they _say _it's healthy, but I don't really believe that." Opening the bag, he dumped a few small, multicoloured stars into his hand and popped them into his mouth. He offered the open bag to the human who, yet again, refused. He shook the bag for emphasis, eyebrows raised expectantly and shrugged his shoulders when the human remained still. "Alright, well, the last thing I have is this. It's really, _really _bland, but I figure that's probably the safest. It's essentially grains and hot water…"

He nudged the bowl across the floor closer to the human, trying to bridge the gap and establish trust. Narrowed red eyes dropped from Kirishima's face and to the bowl of beige mush and finally - _finally _\- the human sat down slowly, eyes cautious. Kirishima could hardly contain his excitement when the human reached forward at long last with a bandaged and still cuffed hand, a brief feeling of guilt licking at his insides knowing that his face had caused those bruised knuckles. He forced himself to sit still when the human pulled the bowl across the floor to have it in front of him and held his breath as he waited for the human's next move. The gruel-like substance was stirred slowly, and the human lifted the spoon to his nose before pulling a face and letting it plop back down into the bowl. The spoon clattered against the bowl roughly as if it had personally offended the human and Kirishima couldn't bite back the laugh that erupted from his mouth. He earned a sneer in his direction which only made Kirishima laugh harder and he leaned back against his palms, catching his breath.

"Yeah, that's about my reaction too," he grinned lazily at the human, a weird sense of camaraderie swelling in his chest at their mutual dislike over the food. "But," he straightened back up now, leaning forward to pull the bowl back over to him, "You need to eat." His grin slowly fell from his face and he looked at the human more seriously. He really didn't have anything to base his opinion off of - he didn't _know _the human prior, he didn't know _any _human prior, but the one in front of him looked sick. He looked tired and rundown; still fiery, but just clinging on to any ounce of adrenaline his body offered up to keep him alive. "Like, when was the last time you even had food? How long were you on that planet?"

Kirishima didn't know why he waited for a reply, but he did. Unsurprisingly, none came, so Kirishima lifted the bowl instead and raised the spoon. "Come on, bro! Just a bite. It's really not that and it's safe! Look!" He took a bite without hesitation, trying to show that it was safe to eat, but his face contorted as he chewed. It was like eating a flavourless paste and, throwing all manners out the window, Kirishima spat the food back into the bowl and pushed it away from him. "Oh, wow. Yeah, no, that's really bad. Try the fruit instead." He rolled the fruit towards the human, huffing out a sigh when it was rolled back with a bit more force. "We have like a week left! You need to eat _something_!" He rolled the fruit back over, a grin threatening to split his face when a quiet growling came from the human's stomach. "Ha! You _are _hungry!" This time the growl came from the human himself, and he crushed the fruit in his hand, shaking the pulpy white mess in Kirishima's direction. The redhead held his hands up innocently, laughing again when the human stood up and stalked towards him. He snatched up the colourful bag still laid out in front of Kirishima and stormed to a corner of the room to sit in instead.

They sat in slightly awkward, but amicable silence for a short while. Kirishima was scrolling aimlessly through his comm, eyes staring unfocused on the screen as he pretended to not notice the human slowly, but surely picking away at the snack. Satisfied that the human wasn't going to starve under his care, Kirishima let himself get absorbed into the world of social media - replying to messages from his friends and checking the feeds he had neglected the past few days. An hour had ticked by before he knew it and the nag of sleep tugged at his eyes. Kirishima placed the comm down onto the floor and stretched his arms over his head, grunting when his back cracked with a satisfying pop. The human was still in his corner, his head slumped against the wall, but more or less awake. The red eyes were trained on Kirishima, watching him stubbornly although his eyes looked heavy, but having been watched constantly over the past hour, the staring didn't bother him. He knew he was probably getting too comfortable in the other's presence; letting his guard down too much. But he was an optimist by nature! Surely if the human wanted to attack him, he would've done so already.

"You're really not so bad," he decided to say, standing up slowly and cautiously so the human wouldn't take the movement as a threat. "A little prickly, but I think you're just protecting yourself." Kirishima stooped down to grab the sheet off of the floor and began to tuck it back over the mattress. "I guess I would be like that, too," he mumbled more to himself, grabbing the two pillows and tossing them haphazardly onto the bed. A wave of sadness rolled over him when he grabbed the blanket, gripping the fabric in his hands for a moment to compose himself. He didn't know the human's history, but he could only imagine how it felt to be ripped so far away from everything you knew. Kirishima put the blanket back onto the bed and turned his full attention to the human. "Hey…"

The tired, but still burning eyes focused onto his face and Kirishima felt his mouth grow dry under the gaze. He cleared his throat nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, admonishing himself for feeling foolish and embarrassed when the human didn't even have a clue what he was saying. "I don't know how you got on Alduous and I don't know who those other humans were. I don't know why you were hurt and I don't know how they got hurt. Maybe it was self-defense or…" he trailed off, not wanting to admit to himself that the human he saved was actually capable of ending the lives of five of his own. "Anyway, I just want to say that while you're with me, you're safe. I'm going to protect you and get you home. Okay?" He paused like he was waiting for a reply and Kirishima swore that the intensity of the human's gaze softened, even just a fraction. "Well!" Kirishima said all too loudly and all too suddenly, feeling his face heat up for reasons he didn't need nor want to explore. "You can sleep in the actual bed and uh… good night!"

He scurried out of the room as quickly as he could and back down the short hallway to Kaminari's room, heart hammering in his chest the whole way.

. . .

Kaminari awoke again, this time to a bright light shining from beside him. He cracked open his eyes to find the source and saw Kirishima sitting up on the bed, comm balanced on his knees and reflecting the blue-tinted light back into his face. "Dude," Kaminari croaked, voice thick was sleep and annoyance, "what the fuck?"

Kirishima didn't acknowledge the half-formed complaint. He adjusted his position, as though Kaminari's voice snapped him out of a trance, but only moved enough so his legs were crossed instead of propped up. "He's still in the corner." Kaminari squinted at his friend. His sleep-filled brain was still trying to process what was going on. _Who was still in the corner? What corner? _It dawned on him quickly enough and he let out a disgusted noise.

"Stop _watching _him, you creep. God, what time is it?" Kaminari rolled over in the bed so his back was facing the offending light and tugged the blankets up over his shoulders forcefully, trying in vain to pull them from beneath Kirishima's ass. "_Dude. _"

"I don't think he used the bed at all." Apparently Kaminari's sleep and the need for his _own blanket _wasn't a priority in Kirishima's world.

"Maybe they don't use beds on Earth," Kaminari supplied for lack of anything better to say, punctuating the sentence with an unnecessarily large yawn to drive his point home.

"Well, he used the blanket."

Kaminari clicked his tongue against his teeth. "I'd like to use my blanket." The saltiness of the tone seemed to snap Kirishima out of his thoughts again. He muttered something about 'being a baby,' but lifted himself up a bit so Kaminari could tug the blanket free and cover himself completely. The redhead remained silent as he settled back in and Kaminari was sure the conversation was done. Just as his mind began to switch off, sinking back into the world of sleep, Kirishima's voice cut in to rip him back into consciousness.

"I wonder if he slept. He looks like shit." A groan which sounded more like a whine left Kaminari. He rolled over onto his back and clapped his palms over his face, huffing out a dramatic sigh.

"Clearly you want to talk about your new friend." A sheepish smile appeared on Kirishima's face that Kaminari missed but totally knew was there.

"I got him to eat. He liked Starfreys."

"Everyone likes Starfreys," came the muffled response. Kaminari dropped his hands to the bed, eyeing Kirishima from the side; tired and frustrated. Sleep was evidently not going to happen anymore, at least not right now.

"He spoke to me last night," Kirishima said, backpedaling at the unimpressed expression Kaminari gave him. "Well, he was kind of aggressively talking in his language, but he was trying to communicate with me! Isn't that cool?" Kaminari opened his mouth to reply, clamping it shut when Kirishima started to speak again. "_And _he was listening to me when I talked to him! I know he doesn't understand me, but he was _listening_. I thought he was going to attack me again when I walked into the room, but he didn't! I think he's starting to trust me."

"Or he's getting you to trust him," Kaminari pointed out. He grinned smugly at Kirishima, pulling the blankets up to his chin and closing his eyes. "Get you all close and comfy and then bam. He'll get ya like the rest of those humans."

"You're a dick."

"Nah, 'm just sayin'." Kaminari shrugged his shoulders, huffing out a laugh when Kirishima hit him with a pillow as he stood up.

"I'm going to make sure we're still on course and get my day started." Kaminari nodded, pulling the pillow Kirishima had hit him with closer to rest his head against it. "You gotta format the report still, too," Kirishima tossed in, grinning as the door swished shut behind him, drowning out the groan coming from his friend.

His morning routine was simple, even more so on the way back from a mission. Once the mission was done, there really was no more prepping needed and usually, just a simple report documenting their findings was all that was required after the fact. As far as Kirishima was concerned, the report was Kaminari's problem. Now all he had to do was ensure their ship was still heading in the right direction via the preset coords (it was) and the rest of the day was his to do as he pleased.

Kirishima cut his already short workout in the limited space provided from thirty minutes to twenty and hopped into the shower. He was eager to see the human again and he didn't really care how obvious it was, not that Kaminari had been awake to notice him rushing through his sets. He wanted to play it cool and calm, but the fact that he was helping a human, a being from a place that was basically cut off from the entire universe, was too exciting to contain. It wasn't even the thought of being a hero or bridging the gap between the humans the rest of the universe that got to him. No, as much as he liked to help, the fame and recognition didn't appeal to him. The adventure aspect certainly helped, but, after the last night, his outlook had changed significantly.

It was obvious that he had decided to help the human back on Alduous 579, there was no question about it. Spending a little over an hour with the human, though most of it in silence, however, is what really stayed in the forefront of Kirishima's mind. They were not taught that humans were bad, exactly, but they were taught to stay away. Humans weren't accepting, humans were hostile, and humans were to be avoided. Mostly it was for keeping the peace, but it didn't ultimately paint Earth in a positive light. Humans weren't evil, but they were bad news.

Except they weren't. At least not his human. Well, not exactly. Humans were vibrant. They were expressive, analytical, stubborn, and smart. They were _strong_, both mentally and physically. Kirishima chuckled to himself as he rinsed the shampoo from his hair, recalling the bruises on the human's knuckles. Given Earth's relationship with the rest of the universe, Kirishima assumed the human didn't have much exposure to other lifeforms, but he was still ready to fight. He didn't know that Kirishima's bones were as dense as stone, he didn't know Kaminari could zap him into unconsciousness, and yet he still didn't cower.

Humans were resilient.

While brushing his teeth, it dawned on Kirishima that the human probably wanted to shower, too. He assumed that was a staple in their culture as well, seeing as most beings of the universe had some sort of aversion to filth in one way or another. He had done his best to clean the blood away from the human's body, but that was more to repair the wounds as opposed to actual cleanliness. The pale hair had still been tinted with dried blood when Kirishima saw him hours before, and the clothes the human had on were undoubtedly filthy. Kirishima scolded himself mentally for not thinking about it sooner, too wrapped up in the novel idea of being near a human to offer some basic hospitality. He spat out the toothpaste and eyed himself in the mirror with determination. They maybe still had to be cautious about the human, but, until they were proven otherwise, Kirishima refused to treat him like a prisoner. He left the bathroom on a mission.

"I'm going to offer him a shower," Kirishima announced when he entered the small kitchen nook, finding Kaminari propped against one of the counters still half asleep. The blonde hardly acknowledged him. He waited a moment for Kaminari to protest and when he didn't, Kirishima began to pull out all the supplies needed to make enough for two protein smoothies. He wasn't holding his breath for the human to accept the drink, but it didn't hurt to offer it to him. Besides, if the human did like it, it would be definitely more nutritious than Starfreys _and _he'd have two things the human would actually eat. No starving on his watch!

"You'd have to uncuff him." The response was so quiet, not to mention _delayed_, that Kirishima almost wasn't sure what Kaminari was replying to. "Unless you're going to scrub him down, I guess."

"I'm not going to strip him of his dignity." Kaminari hummed, sipping his drink and eyeing his friend from over the lip of the mug.

"I think it's a bad idea." Shrugging his shoulders defiantly, Kirishima began blending the smoothies as if to drown out any more of Kaminari's disagreements. He smiled innocently at his friend's half playful and half definitely real glare and turned back to the drinks. "If he stabs you," Kaminari said loud enough to be heard over the whirring of the machine, "I'm going to let you bleed out." Kirishima let out a sharp laugh, flicking the machine off as pouring the smoothie into two glasses.

"You're too kind to me, dude."

Smoothie in hand, Kirishima left Kaminari in the kitchen to work on the report. Given his friend's only mild protest, he liked to believe that perhaps spending the evening with the human unscathed helped ease Kaminari's mind some as well about the human's hostility. Though, he supposed that the fact that he could easily take on the human if needed helped Kaminari's concerns. He cringed at the thought of having to use force on the human as soon as the cuffs were off but promptly shoved that scenario to the back of his mind. No point in stressing over something that hadn't happened.

Giving the comm a cursory glance, Kirishima rapped his knuckles against the door as a warning and punched the code in to step inside. The human was still crushed in the corner of the room, blanket wrapped around him like a cocoon, but he looked downright miserable. Not in a way that reminded Kirishima of the anger from before, but rather pitiful and broken. Something was wrong. "Dude…" he murmured softly, eyebrows knitting together in concern when he was able to get a proper look at the human. There was an effort to glare at Kirishima, but it was short-lived as a wince contorted his expression. "Shit, are you okay?" He placed the two smoothies down on the desk and quickly made his way over to the human, freezing in his tracks when the human scrambled to free himself from the blanket with a snarl. "Right, right. You're okay," Kirishima breathed out, raising his hands like before with his palms facing outwards as a sign of peace. The human relaxed a little when Kirishima had stopped moving and he slumped back against the wall tiredly.

Kirishima slowly let his hands drop and lowered himself to the ground in front of the human, an action he hoped that would calm him. It at least put them on relatively equal playing fields opposed to Kirishima towering over him. They stared at each other for what felt like minutes, until the human finally caved. His face twisted into a grimace, the left side scrunching in pain more than the right. He brought his shoulder up and tried to rest his temple against it, as though he could squash whatever pain he was feeling away, but it was no use. "Is it your tech?" Kirishima asked quietly when the human relaxed again, looking more drained than before. The pain he was fighting off no doubt was taking a toll. How long had he been feeling the pain? How long had Kirishima _left _him to feel the pain? "Your hardware got pretty fucked up…"

He knew the look the human was giving him was supposed to be a scowl - warning and threatening - but he held no heat in his eyes and it caused worry to bloom in Kirishima's chest. Something was _definitely _wrong. "Can I look?" He pressed his hand to his chest and tapped his head where the bandage sat on the human's, a weak attempt at trying to communicate in a non-verbal fashion. He didn't receive a nod, but the human didn't shake his head either. Without a response, Kirishima decided to cut his losses and attempt to approach the human again. He seemed apprehensive, but the reaction was nowhere near as aggressive as the first time, and Kirishima felt just the faintest amount of optimism course through him thinking that the human understood at least on some level.

When he was close enough, Kirishima lifted both of his hands slowly into the human's line of sight. So far, so good. Moving at a snail's pace, he reached forward to the bandage on the human's temple, flicking his eyes back down to the human's face every so often to ensure that they were both on the same page. The last thing he wanted was to have the human freak out as he looked at the wound, potentially causing more damage to not only the human but to himself as well.

He vaguely noticed that his fingers were trembling when they reached the edge of the bandage, his breath hitching nervously when he came into contact with the warm and inflamed skin. The human had tensed under his touch, his eyes slanted in a way that screamed at Kirishima to let him know that he was walking on some dangerously thin ice right now. Drawing his bottom lip into his mouth - due to concentration or nerves, he wasn't sure - Kirishima began to remove the gauze as slowly as possible. He winced with the human when some of the dried blood had adhered to the gauze, making the removal slightly more difficult in spots, and uttered frequent and soft apologies over and over like a mantra.

"It doesn't look infected," Kirishima commented once the bandage was completely removed. The skin around the stitches definitely looked irritated with its red colour and slight swelling, but that was to be expected. Not only had an open gash been there prior, but the skin had to suffer the trauma of having a needle and thread drag and pull through it repeatedly. He brushed some of the skin just under the stitches, trying to avoid making direct contact with the wound, but that was enough for the human to hiss in pain and shove him back. Kirishima gave some space when the human curled in on himself, his shaking hand hovering over the injury. The episode lasted a few seconds longer than the previous wince and, when the human straightened back out, his chest was rising and falling deeper than it had been before. The pain seemed to be getting worse.

"Is it inside?" Kirishima asked, clamping his mouth shut when the human affixed him with the most toxic glare. "Uh… like… inside? Like with the wires?" He fumbled clumsily with his wording, opting to tap on his own temple with his finger. "In? Like, under the skin?" The human squinted in a mix of pissed off confusion and, finally, after Kirishima made a few more random and desperate gestures, the human dipped his head once in a nod. If this had been a time to celebrate breaking down language barriers, Kirishima would've, but there were more pressing things at hand. "Okay, what can I do? How can I help?" The human's hand lifted to his stitches as best he could with the cuffs and opened and closed his fingers a few times. He let out a groan and rolled his eyes at Kirishima's attentive, but still clueless expression. He dropped his hands in front of him instead, pressing them together and pulling them apart slowly. "Open… Open? Open it up? Uh… Fuck… Okay."

Kirishima got to his feet suddenly, looking around the room as though there would be something to help them. "Okay, we need the scalpel then. Just… uh…" The human was wincing again and even though Kirishima _knew _he should go and grab the medical supplies, his heart was screaming at him not to leave the human alone. "Can you stand?" He asked quickly, feeling rushed and out of breath as he tried to press the panic down. This was a bad idea, this was such a bad idea. When the pain seemed to subside again, Kirishima waved his hand in a gesture to get the human to follow him. The blonde slowly stood on unsteady legs, ripping his body away when Kirishima automatically reached out to help. Despite the pain, he was still fiercely independent and it took everything in Kirishima to _not _reach out and help again when the human's first couple of steps were hesitant and unsure.

Getting to the makeshift med bay still set up from the previous night hadn't been too difficult. They stopped twice along the way when another wave of pain washed over the human, forcing him to crouch down into a ball. The way his fingers scrabbled at his hair, digging in and tugging at the roots, made Kirishima feel sick with worry; the human hardly made a sound beyond soft, guttural grunts, but the clenching at the hair proved the pain was far greater than he let on. Again, how long did Kirishima leave him to sit and suffer? Given his head a shake, Kirishima knew that he didn't have time to stew in the guilt as he guided the human into the room.

The equipment Kaminari and Kirishima had used were still all laid out. Everything had been wiped down and cleaned, but Kirishima questioned how sanitary things remained after sitting out all night. He supposed when the time came, they could find a way to re-sterilize any of the tools needed to avoid infection, but he seriously doubted that that was a concern of the human's right now.

Kirishima reached for the cuffs around the human's wrists and for the first time was not met with the human reeling back defensively. Whether it was pain or from the very gradually building trust, Kirishima didn't know, but he'd like to think it was the latter. Again, more pressing things at hand than celebrating a growing bond. He pressed a sequence of buttons, and the clasps of the cuffs unhinged immediately and dropped to the ground. The human rubbed at the faded, red marks around his wrists absentmindedly while another thought popped into Kirishima's head. Sure, they had medical equipment at the ready, but they weren't only going to be dealing with flesh and blood. "I think we have a tool kit in here, too," Kirishima stated more to himself, and turned away from the human to rummage through a cupboard. He produced a small case filled with tools and dropped it on the counter to inspect the contents. The human promptly shoved him aside and dug through the tools instead. Trusting that the human knew what he was looking for more than he ever could, Kirishima stepped aside to give him some space.

"What are you doing?" Kaminari's voice made Kirishima nearly jump out of his skin and he whipped around so fast that it made his head spin.

"Don't _do _that!" Kirishima blurted, grasping at his chest, "Oh my god, dude! You scared the shit out of me!" Kaminari was too busy staring at the human messing with the supplies on the counter to listen to his friend's scolding.

"I thought you were just letting him shower."

After he caught his breath and his heartbeat slowed down, Kirishima shook his head. Okay, the little voice in his head told him this was a bad idea and he'd be the first to admit that. He just needed Kaminari to understand _why _the potentially dangerous human was now uncuffed and roaming freely in their ship and maybe things would go smoothly. "He's in pain," Kirishima explained gently, voice calm and even, and he stepped forward towards his friend as though to block the human from any possible tasing.

"So get him _painkillers_, Kirishima!"

There goes his plan of appealing to reason. "There's something wrong with the wires and stuff inside him!" Kirishima protested. He heaved a sigh when his friend refused to acknowledge him, instead having his eyes glued onto the back of the human. "Hey," Kirishima grabbed Kaminari's shoulders, twisting him to break the line of sight, "It's fine. We're fine!"

"You spent like an _hour _with him and—" The sentence died off and the yellow eyes were now staring over Kirishima's shoulder again, the annoyance leaving his face and being replaced with alarm. "What the fuck?" Given his friend's expression, Kirishima wasn't sure if he wanted to turn around, but he knew he had to. If he fucked up royally, the least he could do was acknowledge it. He craned his neck to look over his shoulder, spinning around quickly on his heel at the sight.

The human had just finished running the scalpel along the stitches, slicing the threads and opening the wound again. Despite the fresh blood now oozing down his face and the trembling hand dragging the scalpel along the wound once more, the human had an expression of concentration. He looked almost impassive to the whole ordeal like he wasn't running a blade through his own face. Horrified at what he was seeing, Kirishima surged forward, halting so quickly that he stumbled when the human's expression changed. The bloodied scalpel was pointed in his direction, outstretched at arm's length. Though the blade was small and not overly threatening in itself, the expression human wore - eyes murderous and jaw set firm - told Kirishima that he had better back off if he didn't want his jugular sliced open. Kirishima nodded his head and took a few steps back, one hand reaching behind him to push Kaminari back as well.

"I fucking _knew _it, dude," Kaminari hissed, his hand still scrambling to cling to the back of his friend's shirt despite how he was feeling towards Kirishima at the moment.

"Just relax. Just let him do this thing," Kirishima responded quietly, trying to keep his voice steady and the air of the room calm even with the tense Kaminari and the equally as tense human making that exceedingly difficult.

"He's a _psychopath_, man! He's doing surgery on himself!" Kaminari shot back, his voice pitched up in a panic. He wasn't necessarily wrong. With one arm still outstretched in their direction, scalpel poised threateningly, the human's other hand was busy digging into the wound. It made Kirishima's stomach turn, watching the fingers slick with blood press into the flesh, skin shifting and tearing in protest as he agitated the cut more and more. Seemingly satisfied with whatever he did, the human reached behind him to the counter and didn't once remove his eyes from the two standing in the doorway. He only looked away when his hand grasped a small tool, one Kirishima recognized simply because he had seen Kaminari use it to weld delicate electronics back together. The human clicked it on.

It was then the human took in a sharp breath, mouth set in a tight line as he pressed the soldering wand into his temple. It couldn't have taken more than half a second, but it felt like forever before both tools fell from the human's hands and clattered to the ground. Before Kirishima could even attempt to process what he had just witnessed, Kaminari spoke. "What the hell is that noise?" He said it in a rush and it took a moment for Kirishima to catch on, but sure enough, a soft whirring could be heard in the room. He let his eyes dart away from the human momentarily, trying to assess where the sound was coming from and then, "What's happening to his _eye_!?"

The iris of the human's left eye seemed to shift slowly, spinning in its fixed spot, the red melting away into a radiant orange that began to glow bright enough to illuminate parts of the human's face. The human's eyes widened a fraction, glazing over into an unfocused stare. His expression was lax, as though he were in a trance, and Kirishima could feel his own throat constricting in panic. The whirring sound increased, sounding faster and growing higher in pitch as it sped up.

"What the fuck is going on!?"

"I don't…" Kirishima tried to answer, transfixed on the human standing in front of them. "Are you—"

"Dude, what the fuck is wrong with him!?" Kaminari tugged on his sleeve and frustration bubbled in Kirishima's veins at all of the questions. He was in the exact same sinking boat as his friend, he had no idea why he was expected to know why the human, a species he had never encountered before in his life, was shutting down in front of them while his eye radiated a fluorescent, orange light.

"Nothing!" Kirishima snapped all too quickly when his sleeve was yanked on again, exasperated over the questions and perhaps a little defensive over the human. He _wanted _the human to be okay, he _wanted _this to be normal, but he couldn't even begin to lie to himself. Even with his very limited knowledge about humans, he knew that whatever was happening wouldn't be considered normal on Earth, either. "Just… calm down, okay?" He said softer this time - an effort to calm Kaminari or himself at this point, he didn't know.

The whirring stopped abruptly and with it went the light of the human's eye, leaving the familiar red in its place.

The human's brows bunched together in confusion momentarily, and he stumbled backwards to counter, leaning on it heavily for support. He blinked rapidly in an attempt to clear his mind, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger as though he were staving off a headache. Kaminari and Kirishima both held their breath waiting for the human to do something - _anything _\- that would somehow magically explain what had just happened.

Slowly the human straightened up again, using the back of his hand to smear away some of the blood still pooling from the wound. He fixed the two with his standard venomous glare - eyes locking with Kaminari's before shooting over to Kirishima's, sending chills down both of their spines at the intensity of the look. The human took a step away from the counter, holding eye contact with Kirishima as he took another step forward and pointed at him.

"If you take me back to Earth, I'll fucking kill you."


	4. Chapter 4

Kirishima didn't know what he was dealing with. Granted, he didn't know what he was dealing with when he had saved the human in the first place, but he was _really _at a loss now. In front of him stood the human, wound on the side of his head still bleeding sluggishly, and behind him was Kaminari, frantically whispering things to him and tugging on his shirt. The combination of the human's glare stabbing into his face and his friend's hurried words were damn near close to sending Kirishima into a panic attack. The need to be rational in the situation, despite the unease he was so desperately trying to swallow down, took precedence in his mind.

"We should talk…" he decided quietly, resisting the need to cringe at his own voice. The scowl on the human's face increased momentarily, a snarl tugging at his lips, but the expression softened into something less hostile. He was considering the suggestion. That was a good sign. Maybe?

"Not while he's here."

"Why not!?" Kaminari squawked and Kirishima protectively pushed him back further when the human's attention shifted away from him.

"Because _he _didn't fucking tase me, asshole!" Kirishima tilted his head to the side to look at his friend over his shoulder, fixing him with a look that he _hoped _conveyed that fighting with the human wasn't about to help the situation. He glanced back to the human and deemed it safe enough to turn around so he could face Kaminari properly.

"Denki… It's fine," his voice was lower and sounded more convincing than he felt. "We're just going to talk. That's it. You can come barging back in here if you don't hear from us in ten minutes." Kaminari's focus was back on the human and it was only pried away when Kirishima gave his shoulder a light shake. "Okay?" Kaminari wasn't swayed, that much was obvious, but his shoulders slumped in defeat. It wasn't like they had a less violent option and given the circumstances, it didn't look like luck would be on their side. As much as he didn't want to leave Kirishima in the room with the potentially murderous human, he didn't have much of a choice.

"Ten minutes," he repeated and Kirishima nodded. "_And _I'm standing outside the door." Kirishima opened his mouth to reply, but the human beat him to it.

"Just fucking _go _already!" Kirishima could tell that his friend was about to throw all sense of self-preservation out the window and quip a remark, so he squeezed his shoulder and shook his head in warning. It took a moment, but Kaminari gradually blew out an exasperated sigh. He looked Kirishima in the eyes once more and, after a firm nod from the redhead, he tossed his hands up into the air, giving up on the conversation, and walked out of the room.

Watching the door swish shut, Kirishima felt a prickle of unease cross over his body; one that made the hair on the nape of his neck stand up. Even with his back to the human, he knew he was being watched. He could feel the eyes staring into him. That wasn't a new trait of the human's, but the staring from before was one of mistrust. The staring now felt like he'd be dead if he made one wrong move. Kirishima admonished himself for having thought he was making some pretty impressive breakthroughs with the human and now felt a pang of roiling guilt inside of him for being so foolishly optimistic.

Sucking in a nervous breath, Kirishima straightened his back and turned around. The two sat in a tense silence just staring at each other and Kirishima analyzed everything he was doing - how he stood, his expression, even his breathing - to ensure that he wasn't coming across as a threat. The human too was analyzing him, it would seem. The red eyes were still narrowed into a glare but were gradually pulled away from his face and began assessing every inch of him from head to toe. He felt a little exposed and significantly self-conscious under the human's scrutiny. Their eyes met again and the human relaxed a little, resting back against the counter in a more casual fashion. He was still on guard, Kirishima noted, but not ready to attack.

Unsure if he should be the one to speak first, Kirishima remained quiet although the silence was killing him. He broke when the human wiped the back of his hand across his temple with an annoyed sound, his hand coming back red and bloodied. "We should stitch that back up." Kirishima stepped forward without thinking and grabbed some cloths and the suture kit sitting on a nearby table. He realized his mistake when the human stepped forward as well, looking like all of the tension had slammed back into his body in one go. "Shit! Or you can!" Kirishima corrected and held out a cloth in his shaking hand. Not the least bit manly, but he really did feel as though he had been locked in a cage with a feral animal so he'd cut himself some slack. The human scowled when the threat that he anticipated didn't come to fruition and he snatched the cloth from Kirishima's hand to press it to his wound. He reached forward with his other hand and gestured for the suture kit which Kirishima hurriedly gave to him. _Just stay on his good side, _he thought, _You just want to help him. _Everyone liked to know that someone had their back, right?

"Your ship's a piece of shit." The words were so casual that Kirishima wanted to laugh, but he didn't. He didn't know how to respond either, so he remained quiet which evidently annoyed the human more. "You said we should fuckin' talk, so start talking!"

"Oh! Uh..." Kirishima began unsurely and he ran his fingers through his hair. All of the questions he had before completely vacated his brain and left him empty-handed. "You can speak."

Wow. Way to state the obvious.

"No shit, of course I can fucking speak. I was talking to you earlier!" Kirishima frowned. Okay, he didn't need that rude of a response.

"Universal, I mean," he clarified, "Could you understand me the whole time?" A cold sweat washed over him as he wracked his brain trying to remember if he had said anything mortifyingly embarrassing. The situation was definitely more serious than him saying something cringy in front of the human, but he couldn't shake the idea of it. If he was going to be nervous in his current situation, he supposed there was no harm in being nervous about everything else as well.

"No," the human's voice cut through his thoughts. If Kirishima didn't know any better, he would've said that it was the human who looked more embarrassed, like he was ashamed to admit that he didn't understand. While the expression was better than a resting murder face, he had to fight the urge to assure the human that it wasn't a big deal. How would a human be expected to know Universal, anyway? There was nothing to be ashamed about, as far as Kirishima was concerned. The changed expression was fleeting, however, and the attitude returned. "And you suck ass at charades."

"Charades?" The human blinked at him and sighed, spitting out a curse in what Kirishima only assumed was him diverting back to his own language.

"Nevermind. This translates." He jerked his head to the left, indicating that he was referring to the tech that was currently being smothered by the cloth. The human pulled the cloth away to look at how saturated it was and cast a hesitant glance in Kirishima's direction. He looked frustrated with himself, like he was having conflicting emotions, and placed the suture kit on the counter. He turned his back to Kirishima to open it up and view the contents, and Kirishima made sure to remain rooted to his spot so the human didn't regret going against his better judgement. "You're going to take me to wherever you're going and then we'll part ways."

Now he had questions. "Where will you go?" The human paused and looked back to Kirishima with a puzzled expression.

"Why does it matter to you?" Kirishima shrugged. He supposed it didn't really matter to him, but he had promised that he would help the human in any way he could and sending him out into the universe without knowing if he'd even be okay didn't sit right with him.

"Well… Like… Do you have a ship? How will you make money? Do you even know what to eat?" The human let out a scoff and turned back to the kit, threading one of the needles and dumping a healthy amount of disinfectant on it. The lack of answers worried Kirishima even more. There was no plan beyond fleeing. "Do you know if you can survive in our atmosphere? Can you even breathe our air?"

"Are you calling me an idiot?" The glare was back and Kirishima swallowed as he held his hands up defensively.

"No! It's just…" He had to carefully say what he wanted to and took a moment to consider his wording. "Okay, maybe we don't have to go back to Earth right now—"

"Ever."

"But the universe isn't just something you can blindly traverse and expect to live!" It really wasn't. Kirishima had lived his whole life knowing that he had free range of the universe. His home planet had been exposed to it for hundreds of years by the time Kirishima was born, so living with the knowledge that stuff existed beyond his little world was commonplace. Even with said knowledge, even growing up in a world in which he knew he could take off and visit other planets on a whim, he had to be careful. The universe was a melting pot of quite literally everything and, while it had some pretty amazing things to offer, it had an unnervingly high risk of being deadly if one didn't know what they were doing. It was as vast as it was dangerous. Kirishima truly didn't take the human as an idiot, but he also didn't think he knew the actual gravity of his situation. Earth didn't have the same luxury as his planet did. Though humans were aware that they weren't alone in space, it did them little good on the experience front if they never ventured out.

"I _expect _to get as far away from Earth as possible. Where I end up and how I get there doesn't fucking matter," the human hissed stubbornly. He had turned away from Kirishima again and was now looking around the room with the needle pinched between his fingers. He eyed himself in a few reflective surfaces and settled on the metal door of one of the cabinets after doing a half-assed job of polishing it with a cloth. He raised the needle to his wound and - God, was he seriously going to stitch himself back up? Kirishima's stomach flipped at the idea, imagining if he had to do that to himself, and swallowed back the offer to help.

"Why don't you want to go back?" he asked, relieved when the human's hand hesitated and they caught eyes in the slightly distorted reflection.

"That is really none of your fucking business." The human raised the needle again. "You're just going to do as you're told; dump me off at whatever rock you're returning to and we will never see each other again." Okay, Kirishima didn't need the human's whole life story and, yeah, it most definitely wasn't his business. He still wanted to help, even if that did mean allowing the human to run off to almost certain death if that was what he truly wanted, but he needed to know more. He needed to know something about the situation in order to get the human out of it.

"Are you a criminal?" The human whipped around that time, pointing the needle in Kirishima's direction menacingly. The scowl on his face deepened, as though Kirishima had hit a nerve.

"I'm not a fucking criminal," he spat. The needle was certainly a lot less threatening than the scalpel still lying on the ground, so Kirishima narrowed his eyes at the response and took a chance.

"Then why were you handcuffed?" he asked, his heart skittering a little too quickly behind his ribs for comfort, but he mustered up the courage and pressed more. "Why should I harbour a fugitive? Why shouldn't I contact the Federation?"

Now the human snarled. "Do not start making threats you can't keep." His voice was low and gravelly, but so far Kirishima was banking on the whole 'all bark, no bite' vibe he was getting from the human. He most definitely ignored when the human first woke up and lunged at him not once, but twice.

"You would've killed us as soon as you met us if you didn't need us, so maybe you should start talking." There was a falter in the glare, but only momentarily.

"My shit was broken." Kirishima shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Then you would have killed us as soon as you fixed it." The human's mouth opened and closed a few times as he struggled with a retort, finally clamping it shut into a firm line. He allowed the hand holding the needle to drop to his side and he regarded Kirishima with a slightly less hostile gaze.

"Why do you _care _?" he asked, voice still low, but he seemed hesitant. "What do you have to gain from this?" Kirishima was faintly offended at the notion that he was doing this due to some hidden agenda. He couldn't really blame the human for being suspicious, of course, but he didn't think he'd be met with so much resistance, especially when the human was so obviously out of his element.

"I…" Would he even believe his answer? Kirishima guessed that he had been an open book the entire time and had no reason to stop now, whether or not the human believed him. He wanted to be as transparent as possible, even if it sounded too good to be true. "Nothing… I guess."

"Then why help?"

"Because you were alone...?" Kirishima began unsurely but nodded his head to himself when he settled on an answer. "You were alone and injured on a planet so far from your own. I'd want someone to help me if I were in your situation." The human still didn't look like he believed him, like he couldn't wrap his mind around someone doing anything for him just because they wanted to. That thought gripped at Kirishima's heart and he felt bad, even if the situation in his head was merely hypothetical.

"Look," he began, pulling a stool away from the wall and sitting down in it. "Meeting a human is kind of a big deal. Other than a few random sightings and whatever visits happen with the Federation, we're not supposed to have contact with you guys. You'd essentially be a myth to everyone if it weren't for the fact that we have overwhelming evidence that your planet exists."

"Great. I'm like a unicorn, that's why you came to my rescue."

Not knowing what a unicorn was, but not liking the insulted tone of the human's voice, Kirishima backtracked. "No! No, I'm just saying that I know I've probably been a little overenthusiastic about meeting you. I don't think you're a novelty; I would've helped anyone on that planet. It's what you do. It's what everyone is _supposed _to do, that is." Kirishima felt like he was talking in circles and the human was making no effort to stop his rambling. He only stared impassively, which made Kirishima anxiously talk more.

"You're right, though. None of this is my business - where you come from isn't my business, how you got there isn't my business. It was _my _choice to help you. You don't deserve to be interrogated when you didn't ask for this, it's just…" Kirishima let out a soft chuckle and rubbed at the back of his neck almost shyly. "Dude, we have been taught so much about you, but know _nothing _about you. You've guys always been such a taboo topic, you know? This stubborn little planet that absolutely hates every single one of us out here, but then I find you on a literally uninhabited planet! It's crazy! This isn't what you expect to find when you go to work, you know what I mean?"

The human bit the inside of his cheek when Kirishima stopped talking and squinted, pondering his words. After a few seconds, he sighed and shook his head, turning back to his reflection to plunge the needle through his skin with hardly a wince. Kirishima wasn't sure if he should be repulsed or impressed.

"You'll help me, just like that?" the human inquired, pulling the thread taut before weaving the needle back through the skin. Kirishima nodded without a second thought. He would. "What if I _am _a fugitive?"

Kirishima's response was instantaneous, "Are you?" The human quirked an eyebrow up and turned enough to cast a look over his shoulder.

"I told you I'm not."

"Then you're not." The human made a disgruntled noise and turned around to look at him with the most bewildered expression that Kirishima only acknowledged with a smile.

"What if I'm lying?" The smile fell from Kirishima's face and was replaced by something more serious.

"Are you?" The human huffed out a sound that almost - _almost _\- sounded like a laugh and Kirishima just barely caught the beginning of a smirk before he returned to stitching up his wound.

"Are you fucking serious right now? Bitching to me about how I'm going to wind up dead and you're the one picking up strangers, a big bad human no less, and blindly helping them like a dumbass." Kirishima should've been offended, but he was too hung up on the laugh and the smirk. The human fucking smirked. The human found amusement in Kirishima, no matter how sardonic it was. The human could express more than a sneer! "You do realize I'm just going to be using you, right?"

"Well," he ventured, smiling again, not at all bothered by the comment, "It's not really using if I'm offering my help." He could see the human still his hand yet again and dip his head once in a small nod as though Kirishima made a fair point. "I'm Kirishima, by the way."

"Didn't ask." He ignored him.

"Well, Eijirou, but everyone just calls me Kirishima. You can, too." The human let out a noncommittal hum as he tied the last stitch into a knot, snipping the loose thread with the nearby medical scissors. Kirishima waited expectantly and watched the human apply some more disinfectant to the wound before covering it with a fresh bandage. The red eyes caught his in the reflection again and he grinned.

"What?"

"Okay, well, usually when someone introduces thems—"

"Oh, my god," the human ground out, pinching the bridge of his nose. He spun around and looked at Kirishima with the most irritated expression he had. "I _know _how introductions work."

"Great. So, I'm Kirishima and you are…" he waved his hand in front of him, urging the human to continue. The human just stared, the irritation growing, and Kirishima let his hand drop into his lap with a frown. "Well, you can give me your name - _a _name - or I'm just going to have to pick one for you." The human's chest rose, taking in a steadying breath through his nose and letting it back out as an explosive sigh; a calming technique Kirishima was sure did not work.

He opened his mouth and looked like he was going to say something else before settling on, "Bakugou."

"Bakugou," Kirishima repeated.

"Yep," Bakugou responded, popping the 'P' which only brought the obnoxious grin back to Kirishima's face.

"It's nice to meet you, Bakugou. Properly, I mean." Bakugou snorted at the introduction and busied himself with his reflection again, trying to wipe off the blood that had dried to the side of his face. _Bakugou. _"I like that name," Kirishima announced, chuckling when Bakugou immediately pulled a face at the compliment. If he didn't know any better, Kirishima would've swore he saw Bakugou's cheeks become dusted with a tinge of pink.

"Shut up." Bakugou ducked his head and scrubbed at it more violently with the cloth. "Go get your friend before he short-circuits."


	5. Chapter 5

Kaminari had questions.

He had been diligently trailing behind the two once they left the medical bay, keeping his mouth shut as Kirishima scrambled to find clean clothes for the human. He remained silent at the constant glares he received. He didn't make so much as a noise when the human shoved past him to get to their tiny shower. All in all, he was on his best behaviour; not provoking their "guest," not demanding answers from Kirishima, and not breaking down in hysterics over being left in the dark.

The silence - the calm, cool demeanor Kaminari was so expertly exuding - did not go unnoticed by Kirishima. He wanted to be impressed, he wanted to be thankful that he only had to focus on one thing at a time, but it was that exact silence that was sending a chill down his spine. The patience Kaminari seemingly manifested for the whole situation was winding a coil tighter and tighter in Kirishima's gut and he was just waiting for it to snap.

And it did.

With Bakugou safely tucked away behind closed doors, the two were left alone in the hall, resting against opposite walls and facing each other. Yellow eyes scrutinized him, making Kirishima feel more and more like a scolded child who was caught holding onto a lie, but Kaminari's mouth remained locked.

Kirishima couldn't take it anymore.

"I can't let him back out there!" He blurted, relieved to get words off of his chest, but not relieved to see Kaminari's eyes roll.

"I _heard _him say that he didn't want to stay with us!"

"He's going to _die _out there!"

Kaminari sputtered, his arms wheeling in the air and he gawked at his friend. "He didn't die out there last time, dude! He held his own pretty well, too, if those five dead guys are anything to go off of!" Kirishima physically winced at the notion, willingly burying it down, and Kaminari's eyes widened even more. "Did you even _ask _about those corpses you found? Because that was pretty high on _my _red flag list, Kirishima!"

"Okay, just calm down, man. He said he's not a criminal—" Kaminari cut him off with a loud, staged gasp.

"Oh, I'm _sorry! _Did the criminal tell you that he wasn't a criminal? Did he? Is that what he said, Kirishima? Did he almost say the exact thing a _criminal _would say if he didn't want anyone to know that he's a _criminal?"_ Kirishima folded his arms over his chest and stared impassively at his friend's sarcastic rant, arching an eyebrow when Kaminari jabbed a finger in his direction. "We are going to be murdered before we even make it back!"

"We're not going to be murdered and keep your voice down!" Kirishima blew out a heavy sigh, and Kaminari remained quiet. "He's not going to kill us because he needs us, okay? He has no idea what he's doing out here and I can't just let him go off and get himself killed." The silence stretched between them and the glare Kirishima was receiving gradually softened. It wasn't by much, but it was noticeable and a tiny, flickering fire of hope bloomed in his chest when Kaminari slumped back against the wall to mimic his posture.

"You realize you don't owe him anything, right? When you found him on that planet, you were doing a good thing, even if it was something that put us in way over our heads." He met Kirishima's eyes and held them. "I don't know what you were expecting, but I do know that it wasn't this. The situation changed, dude, and you are not obligated to see it through."

"I want to, though. I know I'm not obligated to, I don't even think he really _wants _me to," Kirishima chuckled, shaking his head, "but it just feels like something I need to do. Like there's this reason I have to do it." Kaminari squinted at his friend and Kirishima felt his face heat up, letting out another embarrassed laugh. "It sounds stupid, I know."

"It does," Kaminari agreed without missing a beat. He looked over his friend once more, eyes narrowed and skeptical, and then groaned, pushing himself away from the wall. "But you're a big boy," he conceded, "and you're my friend, so if you say there's some divine intervention happening, then I have to trust you. So, what's the plan?" Not completely on board yet, Kirishima noted, but that was fine. The sheepish smile on his face blossomed into a broad grin.

"He'll come with us to Oterra." Kaminari nodded.

"Okay."

"He'll stay with us." Kaminari shook his head.

"Not okay."

"Just for a bit! Maybe I can convince him to go back to Earth or show him enough so he won't immediately die or, I don't know, something. I have to try something. I dragged him into this whole thing so I can't exactly just boot him out and be like 'Oh, just kidding, things got more fucked than I wanted!' That's not fair and that's not _right_." Kirishima was given a wary look, and it was a look he knew he deserved. The whole situation had gone from a mess to an even messier mess in just over twenty-four hours. He was barely keeping his head above water, he had no idea how he was going to keep his friendship from disintegrating, and he had no idea how to keep Bakugou safe, but he was going to try. He was determined to try. "Besides," he tried to lighten the mood, and gave Kaminari's shoulder a light punch, "he might not even stay. I can't force him to do anything he doesn't want to do and he seems pretty annoyed about my gallant rescue."

"Well, he's staying in your room if he doesn't leave. I've seen what he did to yours here. He's not trashing my shit."

. . .

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. Extremely uneventful, actually. It was a little disappointing if Kirishima were to be completely honest.

He didn't expect to magically bond with Bakugou over the next few days. He didn't think that they'd buddy up, have some heart-to-hearts, and bloom a life-long friendship or anything like that. He may have been painfully optimistic at times, but he wasn't dumb. So, while Kirishima didn't think the two of them would grow closer, he did think (or at least hoped) the human in question would warm up to him, even just a little bit.

Bakugou, maybe humans as a whole, was the most stubborn being to ever exist.

He chose to spend the remainder of the trip holed up in Kirishima's room, apparently claiming it as his own personal sanctuary, and only left when necessary. And Kirishima was fine with it! He didn't mind and he was more than happy to share. He was, in fact, _glad _that Bakugou seemed to at least find some comfort in the tiny room, but Kirishima had just been hoping that maybe some walls would be knocked down and he could at least get a few answers out of him.

Kirishima had tried a handful of times to reach out to Bakugou, who was unsurprisingly not very forthcoming with information, and was often rebuffed or met with monosyllabic answers. When Kirishima did get answers the precious few times, Bakugou was sure to keep them short and vague, leaving Kirishima with even more questions.

"Do you remember how you got hurt?"

"I did it."

"Why?"

"Tracking chip."

"From who?"

No answer.

He was beginning to think it was intentional now, as opposed to general aloofness, but Kirishima was patient and, much to his own advantage, he was determined. He switched tactics.

Once everyone accepted that "Mission: Save Kirishima's Human" was still in effect and resigned themselves to their selected fates, Kirishima's curiosity returned full-force. He was brimming with questions that no longer required "charades" - not exclusively related to Bakugou, but humans in general. Now, Kirishima didn't want to _pry _exactly. He still wanted to respect Bakugou's boundaries and privacy, but he also wanted him to feel safe enough to talk. Kaminari was already adamant that someone had to keep an eye on Bakugou and, when it obviously wasn't going to be him, the noble duty fell onto Kirishima. It worked in favour with his new plan of attack.

He was still allowed to go into his room thankfully, Bakugou loudly proclaiming that he didn't give a shit what Kirishima did when he politely asked if his presence bothered him. Whether or not the human intended Kirishima to spend most of his time in the room (he most definitely didn't), Kirishima did just that. He would hang out in the room for a few hours, sometimes only a few minutes, multiple times a day and would either talk aimlessly to the human or sit in one-sided companionable silence as he scrolled through his comm or attempted to read reports. Bakugou would sit on the bed, as he had been doing, resting up against one of the walls and glaring straight ahead.

Kirishima hoped that by being around Bakugou, but not bothering him _too _much, would act almost like exposure therapy; Bakugou would maybe start talking more, about anything really, if he started to view Kirishima as something beyond a stranger. Not friends, Kirishima didn't blame him for not taking that big of a step, but maybe acquaintances? Maybe he'd let something slip about human culture or maybe he'd have questions of his own that would turn into a back and forth of questions and answers.

When day four rolled around following the same routine, a gnawing worry began to nip at Kirishima's insides that started to overpower and subsequently quiet the curiosity within him.

Bakugou barely moved from his spot. Kirishima had seen him a few times in a different position usually when he was changing the bandage or cleaning his wound, and he once even caught him standing up to stretch, but other than that, the human stayed on the bed in the same corner like he had been glued there. Kirishima at first thought that maybe Bakugou was being whatever his version of shy was, not wanting to impose by doing anything beyond sitting still and breathing, so he offered up his communicator. He offered to show him dumb little games, offered to play music, offered to find something to read - he even offered to find the human something to write or scribble on. Surely he had to be bored, but everything was denied.

It wasn't just moving, though. Bakugou barely ate. When he discovered that Bakugou liked them, Kirishima managed to commandeer the last few remaining bags of Starfreys, much to Kaminari's dismay. He did find one of the bags empty since Bakugou had taken over his room, but it did little to relieve him. The snacks hardly held any nutritional value as it was, and eating only two of the small packages over the course of four days had Kirishima stressing out even more over Bakugou's well-being.

Sleeping was a whole other disaster. Although Kirishima wanted to spend time with Bakugou, even just sharing each other's presence, he left the room often enough and long enough for the human to rest. While Bakugou did have free rein of the ship, it was in everyone's best interest to lock up the room at night. Kaminari didn't want to be murdered in his sleep (or at all) and Bakugou bluntly stated that he had nowhere else to go, so why did he care? But every morning when Kirishima returned, Bakugou was awake. Every time Kirishima walked past the room, Bakugou was awake. Every time he popped in to "hang out," Bakugou was awake. Maybe he did nap periodically, doze off sitting up or something, but Kirishima never saw it.

The lack of eating and sleeping was beginning to show. Bakugou had been in rough shape ever since they met back on Alduous, but this was a whole other level and the alarm bells in Kirishima's head were deafening.

Kirishima was damn near sure he almost broke from worry, long abandoning his exposure therapy experiment to fret over the human's health. He was trying to come up with possible ideas that would help Bakugou follow the basic rules of living. Was he scared to sleep? Should Kirishima stay with him? Did Bakugou want to be the one to lock the door? (Was it safe to be locked out of a room on your own ship by a practically unknown species?)

Kaminari tried to ease Kirishima's worries by telling him that maybe it was just a human trait; just a human _thing_. Maybe they did just sit in almost complete silence for days on end, not eating or sleeping, and maybe he was right. It wasn't like Kirishima would know because a certain human with all the certain human answers certainly wasn't talking to him. Would someone really starve themselves out of stubbornness? Kirishima didn't know Bakugou as well as he would like, but from what he had seen so far, he wasn't going to be surprised if it turned out that the human was just being too proud to accept the hospitality. He was very reluctantly convinced by Kaminari that what Bakugou chose to do or not do was out of his hands and, while Kirishima legitimately hated that all help he offered was declined, Kaminari was right. He had already made it abundantly clear to the human that if needed anything at all, all he had to do was ask. If Bakugou wasn't going to ask, Kirishima had to trust that he felt that he didn't need anything.

But it was so _frustrating! _

Day six had Kirishima almost at his wit's end. He held his tongue, promising himself that he could keep the worry back for one more day until they arrived on Oterra, but he spent significantly more time with Bakugou, hardly leaving the room at all. He forced himself to leave once in search of something to eat and was caught walking back with a plate overflowing with food that may or may not have been an attempt to entice the human. Kaminari noticed, snorted on a laugh, and told him that he was hovering when they passed in the hall.

He didn't think it was hovering, though. Kirishima could agree that he was probably _lingering _more than he should, but he wasn't hovering. He just wanted to be there for Bakugou if he needed anything, given his worsening state. That wasn't a _bad _thing. Kaminari's words still stuck with him as he entered his room again, plopping down in his now usual spot on the floor, and dropping the plate beside him. Bakugou hadn't moved, hadn't acknowledged him when he walked back in, but Kirishima fixed him with a quick smile anyway.

"Denki found this shirt of his with a hood," he said absentmindedly, swiping open his comm to where he left off. With only a day left and Bakugou's health seemingly dwindling before his eyes, Kirishima was fumbling for a plan. He had been scanning for updates and articles; scouring for any news regarding humans in space, specifically a certain human in space, but was coming up empty. It brought some relief to the situation Kirishima had pulled everyone into - the less that was out there, the better. Getting Bakugou onto the planet would be significantly easier if no one was on the lookout for a human.

"You're lucky most of us out here are bipedal, too. You're not going to stand out much, not unless someone is _really _looking at you. So we'll just put the hood up, Denki will hand in our report and samples, and you and I can go directly to my place." Bakugou didn't respond, Kirishima wasn't even sure if he was listening, but saying the plan out loud made it feel more tangible. He felt as though he actually had some footing in the matter at hand now, even if the plan wasn't fully realized. It was a start and it was the most solid plan he had had since finding Bakugou back on Alduous 579.

That was _his _plan though. Kirishima couldn't deny his concern over what Bakugou was planning if anything.

"Where are you from?" Kirishima choked on the piece of fruit he had popped into his mouth, his eyes watering when he ripped them away from the comm to stare at the human. He had been lost in thought, but the voice cut through the silence like a knife even though Bakugou hadn't spoken loud or really all that clear. He sounded tired. He sounded _exhausted _. His voice was rough from the lack of use and nowhere near as scathing as it was before. Kirishima paused, trying to assess if he had actually heard Bakugou speak or if he was just imagining it, but Bakugou was looking back at him expectantly, if not irritated. The scowl he normally wore was gone and it was then Kirishima was actually able to _look _at him properly without being chased away by a piercing glare. He was healing at least, the few small cuts that peppered his face were healed into scabs, and the redness that bled out from underneath his bandage was hardly noticeable. The dark circles, though, carving a home under Bakugou's eyes made Kirishima's heart lurch and he couldn't miss the way the whites of his eyes were tinged pink.

"Oh, uh," Kirishima paused to cough on the fruit juice still lodged in his throat and placed the comm down on the floor when he recovered. "Well, I'm from Borix-C. It's this huge planet in the Diae galaxy. Have you guys discovered Diae yet?" No answer. Okay, so he still didn't like questions in return. Kirishima could work with that. "Anyway, we're going to Oterra, though. That's where Kaminari and I live most of the time."

"Most of the time?" Bakugou echoed.

"Yeah, Oterra isn't really a planet that you live permanently on. It's kind of a business planet. Not corporations though." Kirishima chuckled at the expression Bakugou was giving him, one of frustration and confusion; regret from striking up a conversation. "It's a contract hub. Businesses will put out a posting for contract work, basically grunt work, and my employer will take those contracts and give them to me to complete. Denki and I typically do contract work for scientists and anthropologists - basically anyone who is wanting to learn more about other planets. But then you got construction workers, tradesmen, labourers. Pretty much anyone who does odd jobs is on Oterra.

"It's a nice planet, but it's small and crowded with apartments. There's nothing for entertainment and it's definitely not a place for opportunity. It's kind of just a place for a quick buck. When the contracts are good, sometimes you only get a day or two between each one, so it's nice to have a place you can call your own. When the contracts die off, everyone tends to just go home because there's not much to do while you wait for business to pick back up."

"Are there trees?" The question was asked almost instantly, as though Bakugou was waiting for Kirishima to stop talking about the business mechanics of Oterra before blurting it out. The sudden interest had Kirishima hesitating for a moment, trying to study Bakugou's face but he wasn't looking at him now. He nodded his head.

"There are. Not a lot, though. There's a park near our place that has some." He leaned a little in an effort to read Bakugou's expression and gave up when he couldn't do so without making it blatantly obvious. "We can… go… see them? If you'd like?" he risked asking, smiling apologetically when Bakugou rolled his eyes.

"I don't care about fucking trees. We have them on Earth."

"Do you have a lot of trees?" Bakugou eyed him suspiciously and Kirishima just continued to smile innocently. He didn't get an answer, he didn't expect one, but he did get something better. Bakugou gave him one final sneer and turned away from him, lying down on his side.

"Get out. I'm tired." Kirishima didn't know if he was actually going to sleep, but at least attempting was better than nothing.

. . .

Landing on Oterra had been easy. Kirishima knew it was going to be; Oterra was a planet that ran on an honour system and if someone chose not to abide by said honour, then the affected residents would take it into their own hands. Most kept to themselves, not bothering to get wrapped up in any drama or crimes if they didn't need to. Kirishima wasn't a criminal, he had to remind himself, but if he was dealing with criminal activities, at least no one would go poking around.

He didn't count fraternizing with a species the Federation explicitly said not to fraternize with as "criminal activity." At least, not when the species he wasn't supposed to fraternize with needed help. Surely that was an exception, right?

"I'll meet up with you guys later," Kaminari said once they were all outside of the ship, holding the case of samples out in front him and precariously balancing his comm with the hopefully completed report on top of it. "Thanks for not murdering us, Bakugou!" Over the last few hours, Kaminari had warmed up to Bakugou substantially, something that clearly seemed to annoy the human. It appeared that as the promise of returning home safely despite a potential murderer onboard became a higher and higher probability, Kaminari had allowed his opinion of Bakugou to change. Bakugou's stance on Kaminari, however, hadn't despite the other's now-chummy attitude. Kirishima was just thankful for the one-sided peace between the two, all things considering.

"If they ask why I'm not there—" Kaminari cut Kirishima off with a wave of his hand.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll tell them you got the space shits or something." The devilish grin was blinding before he turned on his heel, hurrying away to avoid Kirishima's spluttered protest about the rumour he _knew _he was going to start. "Head home before you see someone you know!"

"Ugh," Kirishima whined, glaring at Kaminari's retreating back, "I know he's going to use that _exact _excuse, too." Shaking away the ill thoughts he had towards his friend, Kirishima turned to Bakugou to give his appearance one final inspection. He wasn't sure if Bakugou would wear the shirt Kaminari had found, worried that he'd be too stubborn to hide his identity, but he complied without difficulty. The hood was decently sized; it obscured most of Bakugou's face if he pulled it forward enough and looked downwards, but it didn't look overly suspicious either. Satisfied, Kirishima gave Bakugou a thumbs up and gestured towards the open doors leading out to Oterra. "Well, he's an idiot, but he's right. We should go before we do run into someone."

The walk to his place wasn't far, ten minutes at most, and even though they still had to actually get to his place, Kirishima felt much more at ease. He was still trying to navigate through the unfamiliar metaphorical territory, but at least now he could do it on the familiar literal territory. They could lock themselves away somewhere safe and be free to figure out the next steps.

The relief he felt did not seem to spill over to Bakugou. As soon as they left the hangar and were out in the open on the street, Bakugou took one look up at all of the beings milling about, looked back down at the pavement, and subtly stepped closer to Kirishima. He wasn't so close that they were touching, but, seeing as the human had a personal space bubble the size of a planet, Bakugou's proximity took Kirishima by surprise. A moment of concern flicked across his mind when he looked at him. They hadn't known each other long at all, but in that short amount of time, Bakugou had expressed a rather large personality despite hardly saying a word. Looking at him now, almost trying to shrink in on himself, was worrying. Kirishima figured that Bakugou, no matter how strong he seemed, was quite possibly nervous about being on a new planet, especially one bustling with life. He opted to keep his mouth shut about his observation.

"Hey," Kirishima said instead, keeping his voice low enough for only Bakugou to hear, "It's not that far of a walk and we'll be there in no time, okay?" Bakugou didn't look up from the impressive stare he was keeping on the ground. Unperturbed by the lack of answer, and in truth expecting it, Kirishima waved the unsure Bakugou forward when he took a few steps. "It's just a little busy near the port, but when we get up to the next street it'll thin out." He watched Bakugou clench and unclench his fists at his sides a few times, patiently waiting for him to make the next move on his own.

Finally, the red eyes tore away from the ground to meet his only briefly, enough to catch the hint of hesitancy. Affixing a confident smile to his face, Kirishima stepped back over to Bakugou and leaned down to see the embarrassed scowl, forcing eye contact. "I know this is probably a lot to take in, but you have been through a lot already. Getting through this crowd is going to be nothing for you." Bakugou glowered at the words and Kirishima only grinned wider, waving the human forward again. This time he did move. Still unsure and still closer to Kirishima than he'd probably like to be, but Kirishima pretended not to notice as they weaved their way through the crowd.

Bakugou kept silent the whole way, even when the streets grew empty. Kirishima was torn on being unsurprised because it was Bakugou or surprised because he knew that if he were walking on a new planet for the first time, especially with a local, he'd have a thousand questions. Bakugou had none. Or, if he did have some, he didn't verbalize it. Kirishima instead took it upon himself to point out anything that may have been interesting to a human.

Oterra wasn't teeming with culture by any means and it didn't have a rich history. It wasn't even aesthetically pleasing, just tall building after tall building crammed together tightly to accommodate apartments for all of the contract workers, but that didn't stop Kirishima from letting Bakugou know when they passed any stores he liked or his favourite place to eat or the corner that Kaminari had gotten sick all over after a night of drinking. He stopped at the tiny alleyway nestled between two buildings and told a very bored looking Bakugou that the path would lead to the park with the trees he said he didn't give a fuck about. He may have made the walk a little longer with his unprompted tour, but after a couple more blocks away from the alley, the two were climbing up the narrow stairs to Kirishima's apartment door.

Just as he was punching in the code, Kirishima froze when a hand, rough and warm, clasped a little too tightly around his wrist. He knew who it was, there was only one option, but the sudden contact still made him nearly jump out of his skin.

"Is anyone in there?" Bakugou was staring at him, eyes tired but focused and intense. He didn't trust Kirishima completely yet and Kirishima knew that and respected it, but he couldn't chase away the curiosity about why Bakugou would even _ask _if he didn't trust him and expect an honest answer.

And then he saw it.

A faint glow, a slight twist, of Bakugou's left iris and he felt the fingers against the underside of his wrist press in just a bit harder. Could he tell if he was lying by using his tech? The thought alone made Kirishima nervous. His pulse picked up noticeably and he tried to fight it down to avoid looking suspicious, but it only sped up more.

"No," he answered honestly, pretending that his voice didn't shake in a totally convincing way. Bakugou stared a while longer, eyes narrowing skeptically, and for a moment Kirishima was sure Bakugou would clock him in the face or take off. Or clock him in the face and _then _take off. All outcomes were bad. Instead, Kirishima's wrist was freed and he was given a curt nod. He let out the breath that was sitting uncomfortably in his lungs and laughed lightly, trying to brush off his nerves and Bakugou's weird behaviour in one go. He punched in the code completely now and gestured for Bakugou to step inside, following after him and letting the door slide shut.

Bakugou immediately peeled away from the front door to inspect the first room, stalking around the furniture and flipping his hood down to properly look at the items he picked up at random. Kirishima watched in both fascination and confusion as Bakugou turned the objects over in his hands inquisitively before gingerly placing them back down in roughly their original spots. He didn't make a sound or ask any questions and everything he did, he did it with his usual glare. It was almost as if he were studying everything in the room. Kirishima didn't know what exactly Bakugou was looking for, if he was looking for anything, so he stayed close to the door and watched the human flit around the room at his leisure. He didn't have anything to hide, after all, if that _was _what Bakugou was trying to find and, as far as Kirishima knew, Bakugou hadn't really indulged in his curiosity up until that point. If he needed to look around at all the new sights in the cramped space, Kirishima was more than glad to let him do so.

It was when Bakugou circled the room a few times did Kirishima start to feel vaguely self-conscious about the overall size of his apartment. "There's not a lot of space," he said quickly, stepping more into the room with Bakugou. He doubted he needed to provide an explanation, he doubted Bakugou even _cared, _but he found himself rambling. "Bigger than the ship at least! You can take my room again. It's upstairs. I'm sure Denki wi—"

A quiet thump from the room over had the sentence dying off and had both of their heads whipping towards the source of the sound. Sure, Kirishima was worried about an intruder, but when he saw Bakugou begin to head to the other room, shoulders tense and moving quick and quiet, Kirishima suddenly became more worried _for _the intruder. Without thinking, he grabbed Bakugou's arm and instantly realized his mistake.

Bakugou slammed him back against the wall so violently that it knocked the air from his lungs and curled a hand around his throat. From over Bakugou's shoulder, Kirishima could see a shock of pink round the corner and stop short with a horrified shriek.

"Holy shit, Ei!"

"Mina, it's okay!" The situation may not have looked ideal, but Kirishima was arguably okay. Bakugou was only applying enough pressure to keep him in place, but Kirishima could still breathe freely and, if needed, he was sure he could've easily swatted the hand away. He thought it was best not to exacerbate the situation at the current moment.

"What the fuck is going on!? Let go of him!"

"_Go_." As Kirishima said the words, Bakugou's hand tightened more around his neck and he shot his other hand backwards, poised in Mina's direction without looking over his shoulder at her.

"She stays right fucking there," Bakugou snarled, craning his neck to look over in Mina's direction. "You hear that, Pinky? Don't fucking move." Satisfied that Mina wasn't about to run off, Bakugou turned his attention back to Kirishima and it was then Kirishima really did start to worry about exactly how dangerous the human was. "You _lied_." Kirishima was still in no way incapacitated by Bakugou, faintly registering the words hissed at him, but he remained frozen, focusing on the hand aimed in Mina's direction.

He could feel a heat at his neck, much warmer than when Bakugou grabbed his wrist minutes earlier. The unnatural heat was radiating from Bakugou's palm, forcing an uncomfortable stinging sensation to prickle across his skin as the temperature rose. It wasn't painful, not yet, but it had the potential to be and all Kirishima could focus on was the fact that the other hand, no doubt just as hot, was pointed at his friend.

"Who did you contact?" Kirishima took in a calming breath, forcing his eyes away from Mina to meet the red ones again. "Is she with the Federation?"

"I wanted to surprise them when they got back!"

"Shut the _fuck _up!" The heat flared well past the sting, a bright burst of pain coating the column of Kirishima's neck when Bakugou yelled, dulling out into a steady burn just as quickly as it came.

"She's a friend. Bakugou, she's a _friend_." He hissed when the fingers flexed against the fresh burn, Mina's muffled whimpers echoing in the room while Bakugou digested the words. "She has access to our apartment," Kirishima went on to explain, wincing against the pain, "I didn't know she was here. I promise you."

"Why are you here?" Bakugou growled, looking over his shoulder again. Mina's wide eyes bounced back and forth between the human and Kirishima, narrowing into a glare when Kirishima winced in pain again.

"They were gone for like two weeks!" She pointed back to the doorway she came from, her trembling hand shattering the brave face she had put on. "I got back early and did some shopping for them! I wasn't expecting Eiji to bring home a… a _monster!_" There was another flare-up and for a horrifying moment, Kirishima tried to figure out if he was truly smelling burnt skin or if his mind was playing tricks on him. Normally he'd love his friend's fierce tenacity, how she managed to stick to her guns even in the face of danger, but with all due respect, she wasn't the one with a white-hot hand wrapped around her throat.

"I'm not turning you in, Bakugou," Kirishima said as convincingly as he could with the flesh of his neck literally burning under the human's touch, trying to pull his attention away from the feisty woman.

"I'm not a monster," Bakugou bit out and Kirishima had to fight back the nagging thought that it was weird that those words were something Bakugou latched onto.

"I know." He nodded even with the hand around his neck and Bakugou's breathing stuttered a bit, just a quiet hitch catching in his throat.

"And I'm not going back to Earth," he leaned in closer, punctuating the words by squeezing Kirishima's throat with a hand back to normal temperature, "I'm _not_." He shoved Kirishima back roughly and stepped away from him, stepping even further away when Mina threw caution to the wind and rushed over.

"Are you okay?" She fretted around Kirishima's neck, holding shaking fingers up to the blistered skin but not touching. "You could've killed him!"

"Mina—"

"That was the _point_."

"Bakug—"

"Who even are you!?"

"None of your fucking business!"

"Can you both just stop for one second!?" Kirishima was startled by his own yelling but chased the guilt away. Here he was with a well-done neck courtesy of the human he saved and said human and one of his closest friends were arguing like children. "Mina," he took a steadying breath, smiling at his friend's worried face, thumbing away a tear even as she scoffed, "Hey."

"Don't 'hey' me, Kirishima! You have _so _much explaining to do right now! He—" Mina stopped herself, turning to face Bakugou standing off to the side. "_You're _a human, aren't you? Where the _hell _did you find a human, Ei, and _why _did you bring him here?"

"He was hurt on Alduous," Kirishima said simply, purposely avoiding looking at the expression Mina was giving him. "I wanted to get him back to Earth, he doesn't want to go back to Earth, so now we're just… trying to figure something out?"

"Ei, honey," Mina pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, "I love you, but you are so infuriatingly stupid sometimes. You can't - you _can't _\- just adopt a human like some kind of pet!"

"I'm _not!_"

"He's _dangerous!_"

"He's not!"

"He _broiled _your fucking _neck_, dude!" Kirishima gingerly raised a hand to his neck, resting his palm over his collarbones instead of touching the raw skin, and maybe felt just a _little _stupid at the words that had just come out of his mouth. He eyed Bakugou unsurely, not missing the way the human's locked onto the damaged skin before jumping back to his face.

"He just…" Kirishima trailed off, studying Bakugou's face, trying to find any ounce of remorse or _something _in his expression, but came up empty. "We're working on it," he decided on, giving Bakugou a short nod. "You can't tell anyone, okay? Denki only knows because he was there, but we're - _I'm _\- trying to keep everyone out of it. So you should go." Mina balked, adamantly shaking her head.

"I'm _not _leaving you with him!" The ache in his neck sent a message to his brain screaming that Mina was probably right. He wanted to defend Bakugou as he had done over and over, but it was getting harder to do so. The reality of it was Kirishima had already put his own safety on the line, he wasn't going to gamble with Mina's. She had to stay away for her own protection; he wouldn't budge on that.

"Mina," Kirishima said firmly, gently holding either side of her arms and giving them a reassuring squeeze, "I need you to go. I'll send you a message every hour, every half hour, every fifteen minutes, whatever you want, but I _need _you to go. I'm serious." He could tell Mina wanted to object to his request, but at his quiet, begging "Please," she knew she wasn't going to win.

"Every hour," Mina said, her voice wobbling at the end, "Or more, but every hour at _least_, okay?" Black and gold eyes shifted to Bakugou's form, glaring despite the sheen of tears. "Or I will contact the Federation. I don't care what you do to me, if I don't hear from him, I'll talk." The human rolled his eyes at the threat and Kirishima felt like he would've laughed if the situations were different. Mina was dead serious, he knew that, and the thought alone caused a fond bubble of pride to swell in his chest. He truly was lucky to have such amazing friends and it made pushing them away that much harder.

They parted with a hug that felt too short, Mina forcing Kirishima to promise over and over that he'd message her before she finally left. When she did, Kirishima was left staring at the closed door for minutes, trying to breathe through the heavy tension that still flooded the air. Gathering up all of his remaining courage and scrambling to find energy left in him, Kirishima turned around to face Bakugou.

"You can't do that," he said quietly, but he stared at the human with an unwavering and serious look despite the exhaustion. "You can do whatever you want to me if you feel scared or unsafe or mad or whatever the hell you have going through your head right now, but you cannot _ever _threaten my friends like that again, Bakugou." Bakugou returned the glare, just as venomous and bristled at the mention of him feeling threatened, but Kirishima refused to look away. "I'm going to help you, but you do that again and I will be the one contacting the Federation."

"You'd go to jail."

"I don't care. If it means keeping my friends safe, I'll even take a death penalty." Bakugou let go of his glare momentarily, backing down enough for Kirishima to get the upperhand in the situation. He curled his lip into a sneer, attempting to call the bluff that wasn't there, and Kirishima shook his head stubbornly. "Do you understand me?" Bakugou muttered out a curse in his own language and backed down completely.

"Fine."


	6. Chapter 6

"So," Mina drawled, inspecting her nails, "How's the feral stray doing?" Kirishima groaned and narrowed his eyes at the hologram projecting up from his comm.

To say things had been rocky after landing on Oterra just under a week ago would have been an understatement. Mina was gracious enough to keep her physical distance and this was the first time they had spoken technically face-to-face since the incident. It didn't mean there was no contact, however. She had made up for her lack of presence by bombarding both Kirishima and Kaminari with messages to get some kind of clarification about what she inadvertently stumbled into. When she got the gist of the situation, the messages went to Kirishima only, switching between berating him and fretting over him so quickly that it gave him whiplash just to read.

Her concern wasn't exactly misplaced, either. The glaring reality that Kirishima's good intentions truly weren't good enough was beginning to wear on him. No good deed goes unpunished, he supposed, if the burns healing concerningly slow around his neck were anything to go by.

"He's fine. I think. He hasn't really left my room much." Other than a few quiet noises and the even fewer glimpses of Bakugou, Kirishima had barely any interaction with the human. In fact, if it hadn't been for those two minor confirmations of Bakugou's existence, there would have been considerable worry over whether or not he was even still alive.

And 'alive' was a very generous term. Kirishima was sure Bakugou still wasn't sleeping much. He was eating a bit more if the missing food was any indicator, but whenever Kirishima _did _see him, the exhaustion was glaring. Although his eyes were alert when they crossed paths and his form remained poised and ready to attack, Bakugou's movements were noticeably sluggish. He dragged his feet, was slow to respond in any way, and the sneers that Kirishima was starting to grow accustomed to seemed to appear as an afterthought.

Human sleep cycles were yet another human concept that evaded Kirishima entirely. He had noticed a couple of times that the light in his room would be dimmed, though never completely turned off, and he figured those were the times when Bakugou was at least attempting to sleep. Nearly every time the silence would last for only a few hours before being interrupted by sharp, gasping breaths that could be heard through the walls. The panicked breathing was loud enough for Kaminari and Kirishima to exchange concerned looks, but when Bakugou was confronted, Kirishima was met with a curt "Fuck off." The light would be bright again and wouldn't dim for a long while.

But, Bakugou was _technically _fine.

"And he's not feral," Kirishima tacked on after a significant delay, and Mina pointedly looked at the discolouring on his throat, "He's on edge."

"Sweetie, your little friend took being 'on edge' to a whole other level." She wasn't wrong. While Kirishima still believed that Bakugou's aggression, and subsequent violence, was the result of him being scared, it had become clear that maybe the human should be feared in return. Kirishima hadn't wanted that to be the case. He had _wanted _the rest of the universe's concern regarding humans to be out of ignorance, but, even if Bakugou was a one-off, he wasn't helping Kirishima's effort to smooth over the tension. "Hey," Mina's voice cut in, less condescending and more sympathetic, "I just want you to be safe." He attempted to force a smile and found that he couldn't.

He tried to say that he was safe, but the words didn't mean much after what had happened. "I couldn't leave him there," he said instead, leaning back to rest against his palms and answering the question Mina was going to lead up to eventually. She had already asked every single version of "What were you thinking?" in her previous messages, but Kirishima had been able to skirt around the question every time. He decided to bite the bullet before she even had a chance to form the words. "If you were there, if you _saw _him like I did, you would've helped him too."

He ignored the twist in his stomach - the frustration that he willed down - when he thought about how well-received his help was. He didn't expect a parade or anything and he definitely didn't want Bakugou to laud over him just for doing something decent. Hell, he didn't even need gratitude but being repaid by having a hand wrap around his throat while it cooked his skin did leave Kirishima feeling maybe just a little bit bitter. Not that he'd admit it. _Bakugou was scared, Bakugou was scared, Bakugou was scared... _"He looked like he was dying."

"I'm not saying you should've left him there, but you could've contacted the Federation to help him." His friends were never much for logic when he needed them to be so it only made sense that they suddenly became perfect voices of reason at exactly the worst times. "They wouldn't have left him to rot or anything like that. They would've actually known what to do, do it _properly_, and get him back to Earth safely."

"Well, I…" he floundered for an excuse and ultimately gave up. "I didn't think that far ahead at the time. And then he didn't want to go back to Earth so the Federation wasn't an option!" Mina rolled her eyes, golden irises flipping amongst the black.

"Well there's a lot of shit I don't want to do, too, but we still gotta do it. Just like how _you _should've contacted the Federation instead of trying to take things into your own hands! I mean, really, Kiri!"

"He had a _feeling_," Kaminari cooed from behind Kirishima before the redhead could answer, nudging his friend in the back with his foot.

"Dude, don't butt into our conversation!"

"You're in _my _room!"

Mina laughed suddenly, shifting away from the lecturing, and flapped her hand around to get the attention of her friends again. "You had a _feeling? _" she echoed, leaning to the side as though she could face Kaminari, "What!?" Kirishima could feel the tips of his ears burning in embarrassment at Mina's instant interest in teasing him instead of scolding and decided that he would rather the scolding. He jabbed his elbow backward into Kaminari's calf, dislodging the foot from his back, and angled the comm away so the two couldn't join forces in the ridicule as easily.

"Why are you guys ganging up on me!?" he whined, glaring at the hologram of the still laughing Mina. "It wasn't like that; Denki's making it sound weird. I _will _hang up on you."

"Ei, no! Denki, don't be mean!" she said as though she hadn't just jumped in on the mockery and tried to swallow down the giggles threatening to burst forth all over again. With a few calming breaths, Mina wiped at the tears under her eyes and composed herself as much as she could. "You might be right, though," Kirishima braced himself for another round of teasing, "He's different. At least, different from what we've been told about humans. Maybe you did have a feeling. Aren't humans supposed to be kind of boring?" Kirishima begged to differ with that comment and Mina waved him off dismissively before he could. "On a biological level, I mean. They're crafty and reasonably intelligent, but they don't seem to possess anything…" She trailed off, tapping a manicured nail against her chin as she tried to locate a word.

"Special?" Kaminari supplied, not looking up from the game on his own comm, but still very much inserting himself into the conversation. Mina nodded her head.

"Yeah! Aren't they kind of just brutish and practical?"

"We don't _know _that, though," Kirishima countered just as quickly.

"Their planet was studied for years before they closed everything off."

"Observed," Kirishima corrected. "They were observed at a distance. You can draw all sorts of conclusions when you just watch someone." He was surprised at his own answer, impressed that the courses he had to take to deal with other species and cultures in order to be hired for the contracts somehow managed to stick in his brain.

"What about the abductions?" Kaminari piped up. Abductions were tricky. Beyond tricky, actually, because they were illegal. That still hadn't stopped other species from going to foreign planets to snatch up the beings that lived there. Sometimes it was nefarious, a means to get a quick buck or two, and sometimes it was argued to be in the name of science. The Federation discovered that it rarely ever benefited the abductee, often traumatizing not only them but sometimes their entire planet depending on how widespread the abduction was, and put a stop to it as best they could. "What we know from human bodies are all from abductions, really."

"Yeah, and how accurate do you think illegal research is? And it's been _decades _since anyone's had a chance to observe _or _abduct a human. We don't know how much they've advanced since then." Both Mina and Kaminari scoffed in unison at his defense and Kirishima tossed his hands up in frustration. "I'm not saying that what Bakugou has going on is _normal_, but we really don't know either way! Like maybe there are more like him… Maybe it's not… so _weird_. Anyway, he's not some experiment. We can't just shove him under a microscope and analyze why he—"

"What if he _is _an experiment!" Mina gasped, eyes wide, and Kirishima immediately regretted the words that came out of his mouth. Kaminari was sitting up beside him now, interest piqued and ready to fan the flames of the newest conspiracy theory. It wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility. It arguably made a lot of sense; why Bakugou wanted to get away, why he was found on a strange planet, why he could do… all of _that _stuff. "You should ask him." Mina clapped her hands excitedly and Kirishima was snapped out of his thoughts.

"_What?_"

"You should ask him!" Kirishima laughed at the idea alone.

"No! He won't tell me anyway!"

Kaminari whined and latched onto his arm, jostling him back and forth. "But you're the 'human whisperer,' dude!"

"If he _is _an experiment, then it's not our business!"

"You _rescued _him," Mina pointed out, grinning mischievously and leaning in towards the comm again, "He's in your place. He can give you _something _to go off of - he _owes _you his life!"

"Kiri's scared to talk to him," Kaminari decided when Kirishima tripped over his explanation about exactly why Bakugou didn't owe him a thing.

"I'm not scared! I'm just… I…" He gave up finding his words and shoved Kaminari back instead, returning his attention solely to Mina - the one he deemed most logical. "You both need to stop reading into things. I'm _trying _to give him space so he can figure out his plan. I'm giving him time." The grin Mina had on her face fell into something more comforting, soft and understanding, and all the joking around ceased again.

"Yeah, but how much time, hon?" He didn't know. How much time did Bakugou need? What was he even trying to plan?

"Maybe another week?" Kaminari groaned and flopped backward onto the bed, using Kirishima's back as a footrest once more after giving him a knowing kick. "Just a week! One more week. I've got some Units saved, I can take some time off from the contacts and just stay with him here. Maybe you and Denki can team up for a bit."

"A week, Ei," Mina repeated firmly, pointing a finger at him. "You have such a big heart, but don't let him walk all over it because he's in a tough spot. You didn't put him there, you're getting him out." Kirishima nodded his head and let the conversation fall into something more casual. He had a hard time keeping up with the mindless chatter, distracted by his own plan he had to make.

What if nothing happened in a week's time? Was he expected to throw Bakugou to the mercy of the universe and, furthermore, would Bakugou even let him? It was his mess though, Kirishima reminded himself, and even with the support of his friends, he had to be the one to sort it out.

. . .

Two days into the 'week' had Mina and Denki off on a contract.

It meant that Kirishima was now alone with Bakugou in the apartment. It should've been fine because it _had _been fine up until that point, but as soon as Kaminari left, Kirishima couldn't shake the realization that his friend had been an unintentional buffer and distraction.

There was always a cloud looming over him, Kirishima knew that. Although Bakugou barely made an appearance, it was hard for Kirishima to fully forget that a human was living under the same roof as him. But that 'space' he said he was giving Bakugou very rapidly became smaller when he accepted that he wasn't giving the human space at all. He was avoiding him. That was when the cloud lingering around became extremely noticeable - black and turbulent - and no matter what Kirishima did, the anxieties surged up inside of him.

Mina was right, though, about the fact that Kirishima hadn't been the one to put Bakugou in the situation he was trying to escape from. That didn't mean Bakugou owed him details about his life, as his friends had so wanted him to pry into, but it meant that Kirishima did deserve some sort of respect. At the very least, some common decency. He may have been avoiding Bakugou, but Bakugou was doing the exact same thing and, while he made it perfectly clear that he didn't want to be around Kirishima or Kaminari or anyone for that matter, he still hadn't left_. _Kirishima didn't need to know the exact details of the plan Bakugou was formulating, he settled on, he just needed to know that there was one.

Hiding from his fears was something Kirishima was never okay with. And, again, it wasn't really that he was scared _of _Bakugou but more scared of what Bakugou could _do. _He hadn't done anything since that first day and he continued to do nothing even when Kaminari was gone, so the nerves Kirishima felt, the ones that grew with every passing hour of being alone in the space with the human, felt ridiculous. Sure, he had plenty to worry about. Bakugou was still dangerous and had the potential to be even more dangerous now that there weren't any witnesses. Because of that, they kept their safety net in place of Kirishima messaging Mina as often as he could lest she contact the Federation.

He knew they were solely relying on Bakugou's aversion to the Federation to keep him safe, which may have been an issue if the human decided that he didn't give a shit anymore. It was the only upperhand they had, so Kirishima tried his best to convince himself that it was a solid plan as he approached his bedroom's door. At least if things did wind up going sideways, Kaminari wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.

The knock was timid, far too timid for the brave demeanor Kirishima was trying to put up, and he cringed. He wanted to come off as confident and respectful; not meek or boastful. Yes, Bakugou was in his place and in his room no less, but booting in the door with no regard to privacy was just going to bring Bakugou's walls up more. His pathetic knock, however, was only going to show Bakugou how nervous he really was and the human seemed more than malicious enough to latch onto that weakness.

Finding the right balance was hard.

Bringing his lip between sharp teeth, Kirishima knocked again, this time louder (but not _too _loud), and announced that he'd be opening the door. He gave a moment for Bakugou to respond - to welcome him in or shove him away - and hit the small switch to slide open the door when he received no answer.

Bakugou was sitting on the bed, facing forward at a poster on the wall, just staring and giving no indication that he was aware of Kirishima's presence. For a moment, everything Kirishima had planned to say and do kind of just dropped out of his mind because, wow, Bakugou looked worse than he remembered. His breathing was slow and shallow, and, if it weren't for his eyes being opened although they weren't opened very much, Kirishima would've thought him to be asleep.

It took Kirishima physically entering the room to be a few steps away from the bed for Bakugou to finally acknowledge him with a tired, "What?"

"I need to know your plan." Bakugou blinked slowly and kept his eyes closed longer than a normal blink should've been. He tilted his head, opened his eyes, and continued to stare at the poster.

"Why?"

They hadn't had much interaction, but whenever they did, Bakugou was sure to make everything as difficult as possible. It had been like pulling teeth and, sleep-deprived or not, Bakugou apparently wasn't going to let up now. Kirishima frowned and squared his shoulders, playing Mina's words over and over in his head as a reaffirming mantra. "Because if you're staying here and I'm going to be helping you, I need to know something." This time Bakugou sat up straighter and pulled in a long inhale, as though he had to gather energy and strength which he quite possibly did. He looked over at Kirishima, looking at him like he normally did, like he was assessing him for danger, and met his eyes.

"I told you back on your shitty little ship that I was going to be using you. You don't need to know about what I'm doing." Despite the words he chose, there was no bite to them and no heat to his stare. He was entirely devoid of any emotion, his voice monotone, and Kirishima had to remind himself that the shell of a human he was staring at was the same aggressive one he had met on Alduous. The same aggressive one who was doing absolutely everything in his power to snap at the hands helping him. _You didn't put him there, you're getting him out. _

"Well," Kirishima shrugged his shoulders, trying to ignore the concern he felt looking into the glazed-over eyes that were hardly able to focus, "do you have a timeframe at least? Something for me to go on?" Bakugou looked away, back to the poster, and ignored him. It annoyed Kirishima; it genuinely annoyed him to be faced with someone so stubborn. Bakugou obviously needed assistance, even a tiny amount, because he was completely out of his element, but he refused. He more than refused, he downright denied needing anything from anyone. Scared or not, Kirishima felt his patience for Bakugou growing thin. "Why are you so difficult?"

"Why are you so friendly?" There was no plan. There had to be no plan. The human's pride was just too big to admit it, but Kirishima didn't have all the time in the universe to sit and bicker with him. He had less than a week.

"You don't have a plan, right? So let me help you make a plan." Something in Bakugou's posture changed, the muscles in his jaw tensing and his back stiffening, and - ah, there was the anger again.

"I have a _fucking _plan."

"Then tell me your plan!" He hadn't meant to snap back and Bakugou's flinch told him that he didn't expect it either. Kirishima waited one second for Bakugou to reply, two, three, and then pulled his hands down his face in exasperation. "This?" He waved his hand between them, gesturing at them both. "This isn't working. I'm _trying _to make it work."

Bakugou's fists clenched at his sides and suddenly those tired eyes were narrowed ahead of him in a piercing glare. "Give up," he ground out through gritted teeth, sending a sidelong look in Kirishima's direction.

"Bakugou, if you're going to stay here, you need to tell me fucking something. I need to know—"

"You don't _need _to know fucking anything!" Bakugou was on his feet in an instant, standing in front of Kirishima, and, even with the dark circles and pallid skin, Bakugou looked no less threatening.

But Kirishima was taller. Kirishima was bigger. Kirishima may not have had a glowing eye, the ability to translate languages at a whim, and hands that ignited like a sun, but he was strong and he was sure that in Bakugou's current state, he was definitely going to be faster.

"I do, though. I do because you don't want to be here and I don't want you to be here. Not when you hurt me, not when you threaten my friends." Kirishima paused and tried to keep from looking down at Bakugou's hands. He was also trying to not be intimidated, but the dull, persistent ache in his neck was serving as a pretty decent reminder to be careful. Kirishima returned the glare with one of his own, refusing to back down, and fought to keep his voice calm and even. "You want to get out of here, right?"

"Yes." The hands flexed.

"Away from Earth?"

"_Yes!_"

"Then tell me your plan if you have one like you say you do."

"I _have _a plan!" Kirishima gave up.

"Then what is it, Bakugou!?" Bakugou snarled and stepped forward, but Kirishima met the challenge and did the same, halting the human in his tracks. "What is your next step because you've barely left this room, you've barely told me anything! All you've done is freak out and try to actually _kill _me! It seems like you've made zero progress on anything!"

Bakugou's eyes flashed dangerously, but he snapped his mouth shut over bared teeth. Kirishima could tell that he was waging a war with himself, weighing the pros and cons of all possible outcomes, before making a decision. If he hurt Kirishima, it'd be the last straw. If he killed Kirishima, then his last known sighting would no longer be Alduous. He would have time to run, of course, but where would he go? He had no ship to physically leave the planet and, as soon as Kaminari and Mina had stopped hearing from Kirishima, the Federation would be crawling all over Oterra; he'd be found instantly.

He was cornered.

Bakugou let out a yell, raw and frustrated, and threaded his fingers into his hair to pull at the roots. "I can't fucking _think! _Are you happy!?" He sucked in a shaking breath and looked at Kirishima with so much _hatred _that it very nearly startled him into backing up. "Is that what you wanted to hear!? I have no plan, I'm on some fucking planet I've never even heard of before two weeks ago, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do! So you can swoop in and be some big fucking hero now! All I know is that I can't go back there!" His voice broke at the end of his sentence, revealing more emotion than Kirishima imagined he wanted to, and all at once it was as though the anger drained from his body. Bakugou stepped back until his legs bumped against the bed and dropped down heavily to sit. "I'm so fucking tired," he muttered, more to himself than Kirishima, and scrubbed at his eyes, "I'm tired."

"Then sleep." Kirishima's response came out more clipped than he intended it to, still irritated with Bakugou's need to be purposely obstinate and his recent outburst. Though the human had collapsed back onto the bed, effectively declaring defeat, Kirishima couldn't let his own guard down yet.

He was relieved he didn't because when Bakugou slammed his fists down onto his thighs, wisps of smoke curled up from between his fingers. He looked up at Kirishima with a scowl and all that rage that had left moments ago came back replenished. "I can't!" Those words had that same rage sapping out again just as fast as it reappeared and it became evident that Bakugou hadn't wanted to admit what he just said. Kirishima saw the regret in his eyes almost immediately.

"What do you mean you can't?" Bakugou's fists uncurled in his lap, his fingers stretching out the tension, and he dropped his eyes to his hands.

"It… It's just…" The fight within Bakugou was back on, but the exhaustion was taking its toll again. He was trying to keep up with his thoughts, trying to force back the words spilling out of his mouth - words not laced with venom that he let escape by accident. "It doesn't matter," Bakugou said softly, so quietly that Kirishima almost missed it. "I'm coming up with a plan and I'll get off this stupid fucking planet and out of your shitty hair and way from _them_. So just fuck off." He didn't look up at Kirishima, but it was clear that the conversation was done.

With all the hostility Bakugou had displayed, why was it Kirishima who felt guilty?

. . .

The week was nearly up when Kaminari and Mina returned from the contract and, while Mina had been requesting updates, Kaminari was actually able to see that something was off with his friend whereas Mina couldn't. Bakugou not leaving the room was one thing, he had done that back on their ship, but Kirishima on the other hand… Their bedrooms were cramped enough as it was, and though he loved his friend dearly, Kirishima becoming a permanent fixture in his room was going to send Kaminari over the edge if he didn't start leaving it.

Frustration due to their constant close proximity aside, Kaminari also hated seeing his usually bright friend so miserable. Kirishima had attempted to play it off and act as though nothing was bothering him, which Kaminari saw right through as the effort looked too strained to be natural.

Kirishima could bounce back from anything that knocked him down, and it was a trait Kaminari admired. It appeared that Kirishima had forgotten about that part of himself and chose to hide away instead of focus on the resiliency that had always kept him going. Kaminari was set to remind him.

"You're avoiding him." He found Kirishima sprawled out on his bed, in the same spot he had practically remained in since he got back, and called him out on his behaviour. "Like, really obviously this time. You were practically glued to his hip since Alduous." Kirishima looked up at Kaminari, unsure how he should respond, because what was there even to say? He _was _avoiding Bakugou - actively this time. It was stupid and childish, but Kirishima was at a loss.

Kaminari knew that, too. The mess Kirishima had put himself in was growing more and more with each passing day and Kaminari couldn't help but feel a little responsible for not stopping it all sooner. He could've put his foot down as soon as Kirishima found Bakugou and called the Federation right away, but he didn't. He could've called the Federation when Bakugou woke up, but he didn't. He certainly _should've _called the Federation when he came home to find Kirishima tending to blistered burns, but he didn't. He knew it was a bad idea and went along with it anyway. "You going to just ignore me like your friend does?" Kaminari tried to joke, moving to sit beside Kirishima when he let out a ghost of a laugh and shuffled over to make room.

"I really fucked up," Kirishima said after a pause. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, not sure what he should say, and shook his head. "Like… Dude, I knew it wasn't a good situation - I know it's _not _a good situation. I kept acting like it was okay when he got violent because I thought it made sense that he'd lash out! But he keeps being so angry and stubborn and I don't even know what to do!" Kirishima stopped again, feeling a burn develop in his eyes. He hadn't wanted to admit his concerns out loud, not after he spent weeks justifying every bad thing that came as a result of his actions.

He was tired of taking two steps forward with Bakugou and then immediately taking ten steps back. He was tired of being wrong. Tired of his optimism, of his curiosity, of everything about himself that told him helping would be a good plan. Kirishima pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes to stave off the tears and groaned.

"And then I yelled at him. We yelled at each other, I guess, but all I wanted to do was offer my help. I wanted to bridge the stupid gap between us so we could sweep all of this under the rug and take the coward's way out; just part ways and pretend nothing ever happened! But he can't sleep, he doesn't have a plan, he _has _to be terrified being stuck out here with nowhere to go, and I thought yelling at him was going to help? What's wrong with me?"

Kaminari tipped his shoulders up in a shrug. "You need to stop feeling bad for defending yourself, dude. You haven't done anything to hurt him, you've followed through on all your promises you made to him, and he still acts like you're going to stab him in the back. Besides straight up disobeying the Federation, you haven't done anything wrong. At least, not by Bakugou." Kirishima dropped his arms to his sides and looked up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the way the world blurred, and thought over Kaminari's words.

"I know, but I'm better than that."

Silence spread between them and Kirishima's mouth dipped more into a frown with each passing second. He didn't want to admit that everything they had done was all for nought because saying it made it too real, but he felt as though he didn't have a choice. He could at least own up to it.

"You were right. He's dangerous and I made a mistake. But now I can't fix it." Kaminari looked to his friend and saw the way his short brows bunched together in stress and worry, the way he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. Distraught didn't look good on Kirishima; it looked wrong. Kirishima was supposed to be blinding smiles and loud laughter, not whatever he was now. Kaminari let out a sigh and angled himself so he could lie back against the bed beside the other, staring up at the ceiling as well.

"Wow," he said, "You're giving up, then?" Kirishima didn't respond right away. He kept quiet and blinked a few times in confusion before turning his head to the side to look at Kaminari.

"What?"

"Pretty weak." Kirishima sat up quickly at the goad and twisted around to look down at Kaminari in annoyed disbelief.

"What am I supposed to do!? He won't tell me anything and I can't force him to tell me anything! He was literally about to kill me, dude, without even thinking. He didn't even hesitate!"

"But he didn't kill you." Kirishima gawked at Kaminari with wide eyes, trying to process the words he was hearing. From the start, Kaminari had been the one adamantly against anything that had to do with Bakugou. As soon as Kirishima started to agree with Kaminari, as soon as the two of them were on the same page, Kaminari was suddenly changing his mind. The blonde huffed out an amused laugh at Kirishima's expression. "He's a real dick, I still think you should cut him loose as soon as you can, but if you think _he's _stubborn then you really need to meet yourself." Kirishima rolled his eyes and turned away from Kaminari, pulling his fingers through his hair stressfully, but considering the words.

"So what do you suggest?" Kaminari sat up as well, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and knocking their shoulders together.

"You said it yourself a thousand times when defending him." Kaminari shrugged again when Kirishima looked at him confused, prompting him to elaborate. "He got scared. So, I dunno, man. Make him _un_scared."

"How?"

"You'll figure it out. You make friends everywhere you go, why should Earth be any different?"

. . .

The pep talk didn't fix everything for Kirishima. He was still clouded by doubt and was still beyond uncertain about what his next step should be, but Kaminari was right about one thing. He was stubborn, too.

He entered the bedroom much like he had before, knocking a few times and letting himself in after announcing that he was going to do so when Bakugou didn't answer. He was met with the usual scowl which he returned with a quick smile and brief wave.

"You have nightmares." The scowl darkened and Kirishima continued. "When I was little—"

"I'm not a child." Kirishima ignored him.

"When I was little I used to have nightmares all the time. I would wake up screaming and crying and my parents tried everything to get them to stop, but the nightmares kept coming. The only thing that worked was a colossal pain in the ass for my mom." Kirishima approached the bedside slowly but casually, ensuring that he kept his movements deliberate enough for Bakugou to track. When he reached the edge of the bed, just as Bakugou had begun to recoil and hiss a protest, Kirishima settled down onto the floor and faced away. "My mom would kind of just hang out in the room with me until I fell asleep. Sometimes she'd stay the whole night. I think just having her there kept the bad dreams away."

Bakugou clicked his tongue against his teeth in an annoyed sound. "It's because you trusted her." Kirishima just nodded along and rose a shoulder in a half-shrug, pulling out his comm to occupy himself with the screen. "I don't trust _you _."

"Why?" It was an honest question. Kirishima really did want to know if he had done anything or was doing anything that gave Bakugou that reason. Trust had to be earned, and Kirishima had no doubt that gaining Bakugou's trust would take an exceptionally long time, but if he at least knew how to make progress, it'd be a start. If he even knew that he had to apologize for something he did, it'd be a start.

"You could bludgeon me when I'm out and turn me in." Not the answer he was expecting. Kirishima was torn between laughing because he first thought that it was a joke until he remembered that he was talking to Bakugou. He turned from his spot to peer over the edge of the bed, not surprised to find Bakugou's sharp gaze still locked onto him.

"I wouldn't do that…? That's horrible."

"Why not? I would. I wasn't what you were expecting, shit got too real for you, and you needed to find a way out." The answer was instant like Bakugou had put a lot of thought into it already because he undoubtedly had, and Kirishima felt slightly offended.

"I think at this point you've proven that you're more dangerous than me."

"I'm not dangerous." Kirishima inhaled through his nose and let out a frustrated sigh. He angled his body to face Bakugou a bit easier and folded his arms on the edge of the bed to prop his chin up.

"Okay," he agreed, finding no sense in arguing and pointing out the flaws in that statement, "but I'm not either. Let me try to explain this in another way, then. If it ever gets out that I helped you, if I take you to the Federation now, weeks after finding you, I'll be investigated. I might even be charged with abduction because I technically removed you from a planet while you were unconscious and that is a pretty big charge. There literally is no benefit for me if I turn you into the Federation."

"So, you'll kill me instead." Kirishima wanted to scream, but Bakugou looked dead-serious. He really believed that Kirishima murdering him as he slept could be a possibility. Kirishima rested his forehead against the bed, wracking his brain for another approach, and then remembered something.

"You have a built-in lie detector, right?" Bakugou wrinkled his nose and looked at him like he was even more of an idiot.

"A what?"

"Like when we got to my apartment? You checked my pulse and your eye did its weird spinny-glowy thing." Bakugou's stare hardened as he tried to understand what Kirishima was saying and finally a look of something not unlike amusement crossed his features as he recalled the event.

"Dumbass, I was fucking with you. You're just really easy to read." Oh… Enter: Offended Round 2. Kirishima took the insult in stride and wasn't hurt for too long, perking up once he realized what Bakugou had just unknowingly said. He gave Bakugou a wide grin and turned around once more, focusing back on his comm and making it clear that he had no intention of leaving.

"Well, you _should _trust me then, if you can read me so easily. You don't need to sleep if you don't want to, I just need a place to do some work." Kirishima was sure Bakugou knew it was a lie, but he peered over his shoulder anyway, still wanting to ask for permission. If Bakugou really wanted him gone, if his presence really made him uncomfortable, he'd leave. But he needed Bakugou to tell him. He couldn't guess anymore. "Is that okay...?"

Bakugou stared at him with a mix of irritation and confusion. He was trying to find Kirishima's angle and was torn with the idea that maybe Kirishima actually didn't have one. Maybe there was no ulterior motive to his unwavering kindness. "Whatever," Bakugou growled, rolling away from Kirishima so his back was to him, "I don't give a fuck what you do." He was either too exhausted to care about the figurative or literal knife he thought Kirishima would shove into his back or maybe he did trust him, even just a little. Kirishima hoped it was the latter.

Kirishima didn't bother to hide his smile when he looked away from Bakugou, basking in his small victory. He not very inconspicuously put on the music he listened to when he actually did work, lilting tunes that he doubted Bakugou recognized, and aimlessly scrolled through his comm to seem busy. "Does it bother you if I listen to this? It helps me concentrate."

The soft music filled the silence between them, blending seamlessly with the everyday noises heard throughout the apartments and outside, and then Bakugou responded just as quietly.

"No."

. . .

A hushed sound pulled Kirishima from his sleep.

He blinked the sleep away and lifted his head from the awkward angle he had it in from resting it back against the bed, the muscles in his neck twinging in pain. The comm was discarded on the floor beside him, still playing music at a low volume, and had most likely slipped out of his hands when he unexpectedly fell asleep. But that wasn't the sound that woke him. Kirishima moved to stand up to see if Kaminari was awake and had caused the noise, but froze when he heard it again. It had come from behind him and the only thing behind him was Bakugou.

Curious and without thinking, he adjusted his position so he was facing the human, surprised to actually see Bakugou sleeping. He was on his stomach now instead of having his back facing Kirishima still, and his face was pointed in Kirishima's direction. He imagined that Bakugou should've looked peaceful after finally getting sleep at long last, but it was all wrong.

Bakugou was having a nightmare.

Kirishima watched as his face twisted into a grimace and as his shaking hands repeatedly gripped and let go of the blankets underneath him as though he were frantically trying to cling to something. He began pulling in trembling breaths, quick and shallow, and Kirishima found himself hesitantly reaching out his hand. He stopped himself before he made contact and his hand hovered over Bakugou's tense back unsurely.

He had only ever heard the tail end of Bakugou's nightmares. He had never expected the amount of pain on Bakugou's face or the desperate scrambling of his fingers or the rapid breaths that fell from his lips. He hadn't expected to see the human damn near vibrating with _something _that had to be akin to fear.

Then there was a whimper, choked out and terrified, and Kirishima felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach wondering what left Bakugou in this state every single time he tried to sleep. Kirishima didn't need to know the details to now understand why Bakugou fought so viciously against everything and everyone. He was trapped in a pain that dug deeper than the burn he left against Kirishima's skin and he had to fight it every night.

Kirishima took in the expression on Bakugou's face again, horrified that someone could look so haunted and destroyed even if they were having a nightmare. He wondered if Bakugou ever had someone to comfort him before. He wondered if someone was ever able to get close enough to let him know that he wasn't alone.

Kirishima lowered his hand slowly and rested it between the shaking shoulder blades. "Bakugou, you're okay… It's just a dream…" The impossibly tight muscles tensed up even more under the reassuring weight of Kirishima's palm and the short breaths increased at an alarming rate. Kirishima ran his hand up and down the shuddering spine, whispering unintelligible words of comfort until he felt the muscles under his fingers gradually relax and the ragged breathing evened out.

He felt sick watching the crease between Bakugou's brows disappear as his face eased once more. The constant need to push everything away, and to lash out when he couldn't, wasn't so much because Bakugou was angry or even because he was scared.

The way he acted was a necessity; it was the only way he knew how to survive.

* * *

**A/N: I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone and anyone who is reading this fic. I love AO3 to bits but, while this fic hasn't exactly "taken off" on here by any means, it's definitely getting more traction on this site. I've found my fellow space nerds. If you ever want to geek out, you can find me on Tumblr with the same username as on here or Twitter at Citrus_Veins. Thanks again! 3**


	7. Chapter 7

Kirishima woke up on the floor of his room, his head resting on the bend of his curled in arm with his other arm outstretched across the bed. He recalled the events from the night before; Bakugou allowing him to stay albeit reluctantly, Bakugou falling asleep, and then Bakugou having a nightmare. He flexed his fingers against the bedding, the same fingers that had been tracing up and down Bakugou's spine only hours before, and wasn't surprised that the human was no longer there. A stiff ache in Kirishima's shoulder prevented him from drifting off again and he opened his eyes, blinking blearily to rid them of sleep. His room was glowing orange.

His room was glowing _orange. _

Kirishima pulled back from the bed quickly as though it had burned him and let out a low hiss when the pain in his shoulder throbbed dully. Bakugou hadn't left. Bakugou was actually still very much there, sitting up on the bed a little ways away, with a large glowing sphere projecting out in front of his face.

"Whoa," Kirishima breathed before he could stop himself, immediately wanting to take the quiet exclamation back in case he was intruding on something he shouldn't be. In his defense, he couldn't _really _make out what Bakugou was looking at, anyway. It looked like a planet along with some markers, but the hologram was steadily dimming in and out of existence so much that it was hard to tell. Bakugou didn't seem bothered by the interruption in any case. He glanced at him, just long enough for Kirishima to see his left eye lighting up orange again, and let out a quiet grunt of frustration. The hologram died out and his eye returned to the vibrant red.

Bakugou pressed a palm to the previously glowing eye and regarded Kirishima for a long while. Though the silence and staring were things Kirishima was getting used to, it still made him nervous. He had to remind himself about the breakthrough the two had had, whether Bakugou acknowledged it as one or not, and tried not to let the gaze get to him. Bakugou's eye that wasn't covered was narrowed as it always was, but, despite the seriousness of his expression, Kirishima couldn't help but notice that he looked significantly better. The deep purple that bloomed under either eye had faded into a muted burgundy and his eyes were now bright and alert. A soft rosy colour returned to his skin and washed away the ashen shade from before, making him look more alive than he had in weeks. His hair and clothes were still sleep-rumpled and his shoulders sagged tiredly, but Kirishima rejoiced silently. It was a step. It was progress.

"You're really fucking nice to me," Bakugou finally decided on saying, lowering his hand from his eye. He faced forward again and the hologram of the planet appeared once more. "It's annoying."

Kirishima wasn't sure how to respond to those two statements, so he didn't, and gestured to the hologram. "Is that Alduous?" Bakugou squinted at the image, an unimpressed look crossing his face.

"It's supposed to be. It's all wrong, though." It was Kirishima's turn to squint, trying to decipher exactly what Bakugou meant and came up empty-handed. All he saw was a planet that more or less looked like Alduous and a bunch of shapes and symbols he didn't recognize. Bakugou fell silent in concentration, scratching his neck absentmindedly as the projected planet rotated this way and that, continuously fading in and out like the hologram was losing power. "Other than the coordinates and the shape, everything is wrong."

The hologram vanished entirely and Bakugou rubbed at the wound still healing on the side of his face. "The days, the temperature - everything," Bakugou continued on without prompting. He sighed, tired and frustrated, and looked back to Kirishima. "Does that… thing you carry with you all the time have a database of planets? That tablet thing? Earth's is bullshit." Kirishima started when Bakugou was actually talking to him, directly talking to him without needing to be coaxed into a conversation, and scrambled around for his communicator on the ground.

"Yeah, actually! Let me just…" Kirishima swiped around on the screen a bit, bringing up the database and creating a projection as well, although smaller than the one Bakugou had produced. He handed the comm over to the waiting hand and watched mesmerized as Bakugou studied it. He cautiously raised his fingers to the glowing blue sphere, as though nervous to touch it, but Kirishima thought better than to coach him without being asked. With a few hesitant touches to the projection, ones that spun and tilted the planet on its axis, Bakugou grew in confidence in the use. He scrubbed his hand across his eye and the orange planet gradually struggled to appear. Kirishima decided that telling Bakugou not to strain his tech would be a bad idea as well and remained quiet as the two holograms were compared.

They were hardly different visually, though Kirishima's hologram did have significantly more detail. Bakugou's looked dated like it was created based off a rough estimate due to being too far away, which it most likely was. Kirishima guessed the majority of the differences were in the information. The blue hologram had a long log on the side of it, long enough that Bakugou had to swipe his finger through it a few times to even get halfway down the wall of text, whereas the orange symbols (text?) only took up a small square.

"How many planets are in your database?" Bakugou asked offhandedly, tilting his head just enough to indicate that he was paying attention to and waiting for Kirishima's response.

"Uh… Lots," Kirishima answered lamely, smiling apologetically at Bakugou's look. "It pulls data from any planet that chooses to upload their research and gets rid of the information it already has or adds the new stuff. I don't think it can even populate the number of how many planets there are." Bakugou made a quiet noise in the back of his throat, accepting the answer, and returned to the projections.

"Earth in there, I take it?" Kirishima nodded; it most definitely was, he had looked at the entry many times in the past few weeks. It only covered inconclusive studies before Earth shut everyone out and, beyond generic geographical information, held nothing that pertained to helping Bakugou in any way.

After Bakugou's hologram blinked out once more, being followed by a harsh curse, he exclusively looked at Kirishima's comm. Kirishima didn't mind. He was still trying to chase away the fog of sleep from his brain and watching Bakugou methodically scan and navigate the new piece of technology was oddly soothing. He dropped his head back down onto his arm, peering over at the hands that were meticulously exploring the hologram, never scrolling too far or too fast by the information. Sneaking a glance upwards, Kirishima noted that the blue reflected off of Bakugou's face captivatingly; illuminating the slopes and highlighting the sharp angles in an ethereal glow. The red eyes stood out in stark contrast to the light, focused and intense and beautiful and…

Oh, shit, looking right at him.

Kirishima straightened up quickly and looked away, ignoring the way his heart pounded in embarrassment and something else. "How many planets does your database have?" he blurted, suddenly very interested in his bedroom walls. Bakugou was silent and Kirishima prayed to any deity out there to show him sympathy.

If one was listening, they did. "We have our solar system and a few thousand exos, but that's about it. Most of the exos have little to no information, some don't even have images. Alduous' entry didn't before we got there." Bakugou trailed off and Kirishima looked back slowly. Bakugou was looking at the hologram again. "They must've sent information back before…" The sentence died and Kirishima didn't press. Bakugou swiped the projection away and held the comm back out to Kirishima. "Can I use this some time? To find a planet that I won't immediately die on?"

"Of course," Kirishima said, taking the comm back. "We can get you one, too. If you want." He said the offer cautiously, as though Bakugou would take the offer as pity. By the scowl he received, Kirishima was right in his assumption. "It'll probably come in handy," he added nervously, attempting to assuage the glare, "You're going to need one anyway if you're living out here. It plugs into shit, will help you navigate, gives you all sorts of information, keeps you enterta—"

"I don't have any money." The statement was said flatly like it was the most obvious statement in the universe and Kirishima was an idiot for not considering it. But he had. He shrugged his shoulders and leaned away from the bed, resting back on his palms.

"I'll buy it. They're not that expensive, not the basic ones, anyway." Bakugou looked like he wanted to decline, even though he knew Kirishima was right about how having access to a comm would make his life in the universe a whole lot easier. "They're like one hundred Units. Less than that. Denki and I can sometimes pull over a thousand Units in one contract, so I'm not going to go broke or anything. New clothes, too, maybe. So you don't have to keep wearing our hand-me-downs. We can go today! I can show you around a bit better, get you out of this place for a few hours."

Suddenly, the issue of price didn't seem to matter. "We'll have to go out." Although Bakugou didn't look or sound scared, Kirishima could see the reluctance in his eyes. He smiled reassuringly, nodding his head.

"Yeah, no big deal. It's a nice day and you haven't left the apartment since we got here. You're probably going stir-crazy." The positivity didn't sway Bakugou.

"Won't anyone see?"

"Most shops aren't run by anyone, especially on Oterra. Just automatic money-grabbing machines, really." Bakugou gnawed on the inside of his lip and Kirishima could see that the argument wasn't doing a good job at convincing the human. "And we'll keep your hood up. _And _the shopping district is usually pretty dead; it's not like back at the port." A frown tugged at the corners of Bakugou's mouth, more so than it already did, at the mention of the crowd at the port and Kirishima fumbled. "It's a good stepping stone," he offered quickly, "To get you used to being somewhere besides Earth. I'll be with you, too, so it'll be like a really safe test run." Spinning the potential shopping spree in a new light had Bakugou reconsidering the offer.

He nodded.

...

The shopping district of Oterra was more or less empty, as Kirishima had said, other than a few small pockets of patrons. As soon as Bakugou had seen the lack of crowds, his shoulders noticeably dropped down from their raised position and walked with a bit more space between him and Kirishima. He kept his hood up as they had agreed, but with the other shoppers not even bothering to glance their way as they walked by, it became clear that Bakugou really did have nothing to worry about.

The shopping districts of other planets similar to Oterra's size dwarfed Oterra's selection by comparison. Due to the need to fill the planet with housing and hangars, shopping options dwindled to necessity only and were crammed into the precious few spaces left. There were other stores sprinkled haphazardly around Oterra, sure, but nothing quite like the districts.

Narrow storefronts lined the short stretch of street on either side, beckoning potential buyers with flashy neon awnings and colourful advertisements. Under each awning sat machines of various sizes and styles; some fronted with a clear barrier to see the products inside and some a mere podium with a screen on top. Other shops consisted of platforms with large rotating rings that looked more like an obscure torture device in Bakugou's opinion, and some were simply a projection, boasting direct deliveries straight into one's home. There were produce stalls stocked full, though no one was attending, and other stalls sizzling and steaming with freshly cooked street food.

It was a myriad of sights and smells; all blinking lights, tinkling music, and raucous recordings. It assaulted every sense without mercy and, though it clashed with the planet's structured surroundings, Kirishima considered the tiny pops of colour to be chaotic sanctuaries amongst the drab backdrop.

"I'm not stepping into that." They stopped in front of one of the torture devices, the one Kirishima preferred, and he had just informed Bakugou that he had to step onto the platform for it to work.

"Why not?" Bakugou looked to Kirishima, then to the crisscrossing rings hovering above the platform, and back again. The faint rush of air coming from the moving metal should've been enough of an indicator.

"That thing is going to decapitate me."

Kirishima laughed good-naturedly and stepped closer to the machine, sticking his arm out to intercept the hoops. The rings halted, not even needing a moment to slow down, and sat suspended and still in the air. "Maybe the prototypes used to chop some heads off, but they're safe now. It's just to scan you anyway." Kirishima pulled his arm back and the rings resumed their rotation. "You hop onto the platform, stand there for a couple of seconds, and the machine has all your measurements. Then you can just swipe through the catalogue and pick out the clothes you want without worrying about whether or not they'll fit you. Doesn't matter if you have six arms, ten legs, or three tails - it's all tailor-made."

Though Bakugou didn't seem convinced, Kirishima was learning that the human's need to understand how things worked usually outweighed his reluctance. Bakugou fixed Kirishima with a look, one that said if he died it would most definitely be Kirishima's fault, and slowly approached the platform. He moved slower than Kirishima did, not boldly shoving his arm in between the rings, but if he was anxious it didn't show. He hesitated briefly at the edge of the platform, flexed his hands at his sides as he studied the swooping rings, and took a step. Just as Kirishima had shown him, the rings stopped, creating a space large enough for Bakugou to duck under to reach the center. Kirishima let out a little cheer and gave a thumbs up that Bakugou instantly rebuffed.

"Okay, so, now you're going to see a bunch of lights turn on when the rings start up again and they're going to move really fast, so don't freak out and just hold still."

True to his word, the underside of the rings lit up into a solid glow and began to spin again with no warning, startling Bakugou back a step. The lazy rotation from before was forgotten and the quiet hum the machine had been giving off made way for a rapid whirring. Though it was hardly more than a few seconds, Kirishima watched Bakugou's expression shift from shock to confusion, and when their eyes met, to murderous. Kirishima shrugged his shoulders innocently as the rings slowed to a stop and gestured Bakugou over to the holographic panel that appeared when the lights turned off.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Shut up."

Kirishima flapped his hand around dismissively and pointed to the silhouette that appeared on the hologram. "Now your measurements are in the system. Over to the left, you have the catalogue of all the clothing this machine can produce and once you make a selection you can pick out colours and patterns and even embellishments. Then it will materialize after we pay and, boom, whole new wardrobe." He stepped aside for Bakugou to take a look at the options. "Oterra has a really basic selection. Other planets have, like, crazy choices - really extravagant outfits. We're just contract workers here, though; we don't need fancy."

"Where are the clothes stored? How are they made?" Bakugou asked, turning his attention away from the screen when Kirishima let out a noise like he was thinking. "You don't know? You just put on clothes that materialize out of thin air and hope they aren't radioactive?"

"They're not radioactive!" Kirishima exclaimed. He didn't know how to explain the logistics of most of the vendors, only knowing that when he put Units in he got what he wanted somehow, but he _did _know that no one had ever died from their clothing. At least not that he knew of. "We'd know if they were by now, anyway," he added, convincing himself more than Bakugou, and pointed back to the screen. "The universe would be full of corpses. You probably want a few more tops with hoods."

Bakugou didn't say anything more - either believing Kirishima or just accepting his fate - and flipped through his options. He got the hang of using the catalogue fast, making selection after selection without much thought, and Kirishima curiously watched over his shoulder as though the very limited fashion choices Oterra had to offer would give him insight into the human's life. It didn't give Kirishima much to go on, but it did give him something.

"You really like black, huh?"

...

When the clothing was selected, and after Kirishima insisted that Bakugou choose the direct delivery option so he could experience the majesty that was instant gratification, they headed farther down the street to their next stop. Kirishima didn't want to jinx their little outing by thinking about it, but it was going well. More than well, when it came to Bakugou it would seem. There was still an edge to the human, something that kept Kirishima from getting too close, but he expected that. He was just thanking his lucky stars that they were able to hold some form of conversation, even if it was mostly one-sided, and that Bakugou wasn't lashing out. Kirishima wasn't sure if that was due to public scrutiny and the risk of drawing attention to himself or if the sleep actually did Bakugou some good. Either way, Kirishima was more than happy to have some semblance of normalcy back into his life, even with the addition from Earth.

"So," Kirishima drew out the 'O' nonchalantly, trying to hide the obvious small talk, and paused to look at the vendors, "What's shopping on Earth like?" He found the one he was looking for and stepped over to it, pretending that he wasn't eagerly waiting for the answer.

"I didn't really go shopping," Bakugou said after a moment of consideration and stopped in front of the machine Kirishima had been scanning for. "We can order without going outside, but still have to wait for items to be delivered. Nothing materializes like you said." Kirishima nodded thoughtfully, pressing a button on the older looking machine. The metal carousel inside objected to the movement by screeching loudly at first and quieted down once it began to spin.

"Most of us on Oterra have comms already," Kirishima explained, as though apologizing for the piece of junk's squealing, "When we need newer models, we usually pick them up along a contract route on a planet that has more updated options. These work the same way; they just don't have all the bells and whistles that drive the price up. Do you guys have the option to go out shopping? So you don't have to wait?" Bakugou raised his shoulder in a half-shrug, stepping in front of the machine when Kirishima motioned him to do so.

"Yeah. There are actual stores with people and employees, but they're dying out." Bakugou slid his finger across the datapad to view the comm selection in its entirety. Kirishima doubted that he really cared about the style and colour of the comm, and assumed his careful consideration was more based on studying the new technology rather than preference.

"There are entire planets dedicated to shopping," Kirishima said, waiting patiently for Bakugou to make his selection. "Katlóno is one of the bigger ones. The only permanent residents are the employees. I went there once and it was cool and all, but also kind of depressing. Just so much consumption and waste. The planet had no soul at all."

Bakugou scoffed, tapping on the glass to point to one of the comms. "Planets don't have souls." Kirishima eyed the comm that Bakugou was pointing at; sleek, black, and practical. He smirked and stepped forward to complete the transaction.

"Sure they do. In the lives that live there. In the culture and the nature." The comm was pushed forward and slid out of the slot at the bottom, thunking down into the tray. Kirishima picked it up and handed it to Bakugou, his smirk softening when he saw the disgusted face Bakugou made at his words. "There's more than rocks and gases that make up a planet, dude."

Bakugou didn't respond and Kirishima waved him forward.

...

Oterra's sun was beginning to set by the time they were done, painting the world in brilliant streaks of pink and orange. Kirishima had decided on a few more necessities and inadvertently drew the shopping trip out longer than intended. Bakugou eventually made a quip about how he was glad most of the items would somehow (radioactively) appear at Kirishima's apartment lest he have to drag an unnecessary amount of bags around with them. It was then Kirishima conceded and capped the trip off with attempting to get Bakugou to try a common street food of grilled meat.

Bakugou promptly spat it out when he learned that the meat came from a bug roughly the same size as him. He ate Starfreys instead.

They were on their way back to Kirishima's apartment when he told Bakugou that they had to make one final stop. Bakugou protested, argued that they had been out way too long as it was, and pointed out that they had already left the shopping district so he wasn't going back. Kirishima ignored the complaints spewing rapid-fire from Bakugou's mouth and continued to lead him past the apartment and down another street. They had taken the path once before when they first arrived on Oterra, but Kirishima doubted Bakugou remembered the small alleyway wedged between two buildings.

It wasn't until they were at the end of it, standing in front of an enclosed stretch of grass, did Bakugou's mouth clamp shut. The objections and grumbling died out immediately, but the sudden silence left Kirishima feeling awkward and self-conscious.

"You wanted to see the trees, right?" Bakugou remained rooted in his spot and dread fell into the pit of Kirishima's stomach, the palpable fear that he may have offended Bakugou somehow bristling under his skin.

There were only three trees in what barely passed as the park, nothing compared to the acres and acres of forests Kirishima had seen in images of Earth, but Bakugou had asked about trees specifically. He may have downplayed the question right after he asked it, but he _had _asked it. Now Kirishima worried that maybe he read the question wrong given Bakugou's silence and complete lack of expression.

He scratched the back of his wrist anxiously. "I know they're not as imp—"

Bakugou moved suddenly, quickly walking up to the nearest tree with an unsure outstretched hand. Even though he was no longer beside him, Kirishima could see how Bakugou's fingers shook mere inches from the bark, almost as though he were afraid to touch the tree itself. There was an audible inhale, one that seemed to catch in Bakugou's lungs, and he pressed his hand forward.

The pads of his fingertips made contact first, inquisitively tracing the rough lines and jagged edges of the azure blue, and the narrowed eyes softened noticeably. Kirishima crossed the grass slowly, slow enough not to break the curious fixation Bakugou currently had, and stood at his side. Familiarized with the texture, Bakugou placed his flattened palm against the tree and splayed his fingers out as though he wanted to feel as much of it as he could.

"It's blue." The words were soft and raspy, coming out in a breath of disbelief more than a statement, and Bakugou tilted his head back to look at the thin, curled leaves rustling against each other in the breeze. "The leaves, too." His hood fell back onto his shoulders and Kirishima glanced around to ensure that the park was empty, so as not to rip the moment from Bakugou. There was something different in his expression - excitement or fascination - and no matter how much he tried to school it back, it kept slipping through the cracks for Kirishima to witness. He watched Bakugou's eyes trail down from the leaves, drinking in every gnarled branch and knothole on the way, to the tufts of peach moss under his fingers and the roots tangled in the ground.

Bakugou sunk down to his knees and Kirishima followed, his heart aching at the trembling exhale that spilled from Bakugou's mouth. He had his hands in the grass now, grass a few shades darker than the tree, and combed the same nervous fingers through the wispy blades. "It feels so weird," Bakugou said after a long stretch of silence, twisting the grass between his fingers.

"A little different from Alduous," Kirishima agreed, unable to hide a smile.

"They didn't let me see the trees… And then when I could, I…" Bakugou's hands stilled and Kirishima's smile fell. A tense lull fell between them, one that Kirishima didn't dare break, and he waited for Bakugou to gather his thoughts. Gradually, Bakugou lifted his hands from the grass and sat back on his legs, not looking up at Kirishima right away. He was still thinking over his words and only continued after he blew out a sigh. "You're right."

"Hm?" Bakugou chewed the inside of his cheek, staring intently at the roots splitting the ground at the base of the tree.

"This isn't working and I need… I _may require _your assistance, but I can't tell you everything. I can barely tell you anything." Now Bakugou did look up, his gaze earnest yet surprisingly open, and Kirishima could hardly do more than nod. It was enough of a response and Bakugou shifted his position so his back was against the tree, facing outwards into the park. "So, how are we going to get me out of here?"

"You need a ship." The answer left Kirishima without much thought - he had been mulling a plan over for a long time - and Bakugou nodded. Kirishima moved his position too at this point, sitting beside Bakugou and leaning back until he met the tree, looking forward in the same direction. "They're expensive and we're not stealing one." Bakugou nodded again, though slower this time. Kirishima didn't blame him; his situation sounded bleak. In order to get around the universe, one required transportation, but if Bakugou couldn't get a job to acquire said transportation, his hopes of getting farther away were shrinking.

"I can pick up more contracts," Kirishima suggested, "and you can help me with them. I'll give you a cut of the Units and, in the meantime, we can look at some planets you're compatible with so you don't have to worry about atmospheric gear. Once you pick one, it'll be a lot easier to see exactly what kind of ship you're going to need, anyway."

Bakugou considered the answer quietly, contemplating Kirishima's offer, and then nodded one final time. Kirishima ignored the strange swelling in his chest and relaxed against the tree. The relief of finally being on the same page as Bakugou, of finally heading in a direction _together _, took an insurmountable weight off of his shoulders, but a nagging thought prevented him from being entirely at ease. He had to ask. "Bakugou?" There was a soft grunt as a reply and Kirishima could sense more than see the tension building back up into the human. "Is there anyone actively looking for you? You don't have to tell me who or why. I just… I guess I just kind of want a timeframe or an estimate. Will they show up next week or next month? Do they even know where you are?" He was rambling and knew it, half-expecting Bakugou to blow up due to the onslaught of questions, but he continued to listen in silence.

"I don't know," Bakugou said once Kirishima was finished. "Humans don't go into space much. Not us, at least; not the ones I was with. It's too dangerous and expensive, so I don't think anyone is really looking for _me _in particular, but…" He trailed off like there was more to say but he didn't know how to say it and placed his hands back into the grass on either side of him. "What do you know about the missing weapon from Earth?" Kirishima wasn't sure if the question was related to the conversation previous and, although he gave Bakugou a curious look, he decided not to pry.

"Oh, uh, nothing really. Well, not the general population, but I'm sure the Federation knows more. There's really only been headlines about it so we don't go into a full-scale panic."

"But it's a _weapon_." Kirishima laughed lightly and shrugged his shoulders.

"I think it's more so we don't freak if we see increased human presence if they come searching, you know?" His own words bounced back to him and he figured he understood the connection between the two topics. Maybe the humans wouldn't be looking for Bakugou specifically, especially with the missing tracking device, but if they happened upon him while scouring the universe, surely they wouldn't be opposed to killing two birds with one stone. Kirishima cleared his throat, watching the thin fingers curl and uncurl into the grass like a nervous habit, and left that realization unsaid. "What do you know about the weapon?"

"Nothing." Kirishima was sure Bakugou would leave it at that and was surprised when he continued without being prompted. "I just saw it on your comm this morning. How fucked is that?" The words were short and clipped and, when Kirishima tilted his head to ask what Bakugou meant, the human's expression had darkened considerably. "Literally the entire universe knows that they've misplaced something like _that _before anyone on Earth does. Everyone is so fucking blind to what they're capable of."

"And what are they capable of?" Bakugou's mouth shut tight and his jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth. There was a quiet popping noise from where he tore the grass up from the ground, ripping each blade from its root, but Kirishima hardly noticed.

"Bad things happen on Earth." Kirishima's heart lurched and there was an unmistakable shine in Bakugou's eyes.

"Things bad enough that make you want to leave your entire solar system?" Bakugou swallowed roughly; a motion that forced the anger and fear and anxiety back down inside of him.

"Sometimes, yeah." Kirishima could see the way Bakugou's shoulders were stiff, the way his jaw was set, preparing himself for another round of questioning he didn't think he'd get through. He was holding his breath as he waited, but Kirishima didn't have the stomach to watch the turmoil any longer. The last words that came from Bakugou were on the verge of breaking, the strain evident on his vocal cords, and, as much as Kirishima wanted to know more, the sound was painful to his ears.

"Did it help your nightmares when I stayed with you last night?" Bakugou blinked a few times at the complete conversational veer in another direction and Kirishima grinned, content to let the conversation drop. "Even a little?" The look Bakugou gave him - eyes narrowed in confusion and mouth ready to snap some kind of insult, but it looked like he wasn't sure what - had Kirishima almost laughing. Bakugou sneered instead.

"If I say it did, you'll let it go to your head." The clumps of grass still bunched in his hands had been released back to the ground, and Bakugou angled himself away again, easing back into his usual self.

"It's okay to ask for help." The words were sincere but came out teasing and Bakugou rolled his eyes.

"You seriously help anyone?" Kirishima's grin grew wider.

"If I can and if they need it, yeah!"

"Even complete strangers."

"Yep!" Bakugou twisted from his spot to look at Kirishima again, pulling a face at the giant smile. He looked him up and down as though he were seeing him for the first time and was trying to decide if what Kirishima was saying was true. By now, though they hadn't known each other very long in the grand scheme of things, Kirishima liked to believe that Bakugou knew he was being honest. He liked to believe that he had proven himself time and time again that he stuck to whatever he said. When Bakugou scoffed after his assessment, crossing his arms over his chest and turning away to glare out at the park, Kirishima liked to believe that maybe there was a bit of trust and faith between the two of them.

"You're going to get yourself in a lot of shit one day by doing that."

"I already have. Many times." Kirishima laughed loudly, proud of his answer even though his friendliness had gotten him into many unnecessary predicaments.

And then Bakugou smirked. Just barely, just long enough for Kirishima to catch the very end of his lips being quirked up before they dropped back down again. The sight had his laughter dying off in his throat and the swelling in his chest from before, the one that felt like stormy seas and calm waters all at once, returned.

"Do you want me to stay with you again?" Bakugou opened his mouth, most likely to refuse, but the improvement of one decent night of sleep was too much for Kirishima to let slip away again. "I'm going to do it anyway."

Bakugou looked at him, eyes set in a glare lacking any real heat, but he didn't protest.

* * *

**A/N: Remember you can find me on Tumblr (CitrusVeins) and Twitter (Citrus_Veins) if you wanna be a space case with me!**


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